An American Express credit card from 1958, the year when the company first began issuing them. Image courtesy of American Express

Credit card company American Express is planning to build a $400m data center in Greensboro, N.C., with local officials expecting the project to bring as many as 150 jobs to the area, news-record.com reported Thursday. The future facility - a project for which Greensboro's parent Guilford County has been competing with De Moines, Iowa - is due for completion in 2012.

The local news service quoted Pat Dahany, president and CEO of the Greensboro Partnership, as saying the win was a "big deal" for the area. The partnership is a combined group of three business and economic development interest groups, including the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. Dahany did not return a call seeking comment.

While local city and county governments have toyed with the idea of providing tax incentives to AmEx to locate the project there, Dahany told news-record.com that the company would not be seeking local tax breaks.

Greensboro is already home to one of New York-based AmEx's four regional offices.