EXCLUSIVE | Governor John Bel Edwards: CenturyLink Headquarters to stay in Louisiana

Gov. John Bel Edwards and CenturyLink have reached an agreement to extend the company's commitment to maintain its headquarters in Louisiana, a source with direct knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA Today Network.

The deal, which will be announced jointly by Edwards and CenturyLink Chief Executive Jeff Storey in the coming weeks, will keep CenturyLink's corporate headquarters on U.S. 165 North in Monroe through 2025.

Spokespersons for both Edwards and CenturyLink declined to comment.

Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo said he's "looking forward to the official announcement."

"Gov. Edwards and his staff have been engaged in locking down this new agreement for months and included us throughout the process," Mayo said. "We're excited about the future of the company in Monroe and the state."

CenturyLink's previous deal, which included $25.9 million cash grants from the state and other incentives based on job growth, was signed in 2011 under former Gov. Bobby Jindal and ends on Dec. 31, 2020.

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CenturyLink is the largest public company headquartered in Louisiana with operations in 60 countries. Globally it employs more than 40,000.

The company employs more than 2,000 workers in Louisiana with most of those located at the corporate headquarters in Monroe. CenturyLink's annual state payroll has exceeded $200 million.

Details of the extension will also include other adjustments, but state and local officials have been most pensive about the future of the company's headquarters since Storey took over for longtime CEO Glen Post in May 2018.

The extension will likely calm those fears for now.

Storey had been the CEO of Level 3, which CenturyLink acquired in a merger that closed in Nov. 2017.

That transition and other changes with the company's executive team have created angst about whether the company would move its headquarters after the current agreement expired.

Storey didn't relocate to Monroe when he took over as CEO, but commutes often to the headquarters.

He and his family continue to live near Denver, where Level 3's headquarters was located in Broomfield, Colo., and where CenturyLink continues to have a large presence.

Bob Eisenstadt, a University of Louisiana at Monroe economist, said securing the corporate headquarters of a company magnifies its economic impact in that location.

"The headquarters attracts many of the vendors and consultants and the supply chain, which is where a lot of the impact comes from," said Eisenstadt, who also leads ULM's Center for Business and Economic Research.

"There's also a greater concentration of higher-paying jobs, research and development and management at a corporate headquarters," he said.

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1