The City of Austin and the State of Texas announced Nov. 21 two economic development packages with Visa Inc. that would create 794 jobs with an average annual salary of $113,351 in Northwest Austin.

The city will offer a $1.56 million package, and the state is offering $7.9 million from its Texas Enterprise Fund, which was created in 2003 to help Texas businesses grow and create more jobs in the state.

Kevin Johns, director of economic growth with the City of Austin, said the city is competing with cities in Colorado and Virginia but that he feels confident about Austin's chances of being selected for Visa's Global IT Center. He said Visa is looking for a city in the middle of the country with a great quality of life and large tech talent pool.

"Everything seems to point to us," he said.

Visa, a global payments technology company headquartered in Foster City, Calif., would invest $27.2 million in real property in the Research Park III building at 12301 Research Blvd., just south of McNeil Drive. Per the agreement with the city, it would create and maintain 794 new full-time jobs and retain 47 existing jobs.

In return for the investment and job creation, the city would provide Visa with a performance-based grant of $1.56 million over 10 years. The net benefit to the city would be $6.8 million, according to city documents.

Johns said this would be one of the larger job creation announcements associated with an economic development incentive deal. The city previously offered incentive packages to Apple Inc. for agreeing to create 3,600 jobs and to eBay for agreeing to create 1,000 jobs.

Recent incentive packages have included a $920,576 deal with HID Global Inc. to create 276 jobs.

Johns said the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce helped to facilitate Visa's interest in opening the Global IT Center in Austin and that the deal has been in the works for more than a year. He said the new center would be a good fit because the company is very community-minded, having been a sponsor of the Olympics and Paralympics for many years. He said Visa has a great benefits package, prefers to promote from within and offers training to employees.

Visa has 18 locations in the United States and 70 global locations.

"Visa is continually looking for opportunities to add world-class talent to our organization," said Will Valentine, a Visa spokesman, in a statement. "Austin offers a vibrant technology community and business-friendly climate, and we are working closely with local officials to finalize an agreement."

A meeting between City Council and representatives from Visa is scheduled for Nov. 28 at 1:30 p.m. Council is scheduled to vote on the incentive package at its regular meeting Dec. 6.