Vitacost.com, an Inc. Magazine 500 company, still plans on establishing a distribution hub for its wholesale vitamin supplements in the south Utah County city - but its officials say they would like its headquarters there, as well.

“We've been very disappointed in what [the state] attempted to do or put forth,” said Richard Smith, chief financial officer for Vitacost. He says other states are offering better deals to lure the corporate headquarters.

With a May 21 deadline for that decision, Nevada is emerging as a prime choice.

The supplement company is close to inking a deal that would bring a distribution facility and 500 to 700 jobs to Spanish Fork.

Top brass in the Governor's Office of Economic Development counter that they are giving Vitacost more than a fair shake.

On the table is an incentive amounting to a $1.6 million tax rebate over 10 years - a quality offer in the mind of Michael Nelson, director of corporate recruiting and incentives.

“We really gave them a lot of leeway here in allowing them to grow their business,” Nelson said. “Vitacost is a great company, and we would love to have them in the state.”

Nelson said Utah's incentives stack up well against neighboring states, but Nevada's absence of corporate and personal income taxes makes for tough competition.

Vitacost's Smith said Utah just has not been aggressive enough in trying to land the corporate office.

“The ball is kind of in their court,” he said.

Part of the deal to bring Vitacost's distribution facility to Spanish Fork would require salaries to be at least 125 percent of Utah County's $22,300 median wage. If the corporate headquarters is not part of the deal, the tax incentive would drop by $400,000 to $1.2 million.

Spanish Fork officials have welcomed the prospective company by rapidly granting permits and land-use changes.

“Everything the city can do is done,” said Mayor Joe Thomas. “It's unfortunate that we didn't have the right package [for the corporate headquarters], but [the distribution center is] coming and the jobs are coming.”

Thomas said he will exhaust every avenue possible to sweeten the deal for the corporate headquarters before next month's deadline. Until then, the arrival of up to 700 jobs over the next 10 years is music to the mayor's ears.

“They're going to be very good corporate citizens,” Thomas said.

Vitacost.com has been named to the Inc. 500, a list of the 500 fastest-growing privately held companies, for five years in a row. This year it was named to the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame for consistent high growth.

thollingshead@sltrib.com