McCormick & Co. Inc. hasn’t said it’s moving its headquarters out of Baltimore County. But it hasn’t guaranteed that it’s staying, either.

The spice manufacturer spent its first 100 years in Baltimore and the last 25 in the county.

This week, CEO Alan Wilson made public that the company is working on a long-term project to consolidate administrative offices in Hunt Valley and headquarters in Sparks into one location.

Where that will be is far from determined, said spokesperson Jim Lynn, but the focus is on the general area where employees already live.

That means the city, the county and even parts of Pennsylvania, just over the Maryland border, are fair game.

“We’re at the very early stages of this process. There are not a lot of answers,” said Lynn. “I think the process has to play itself out. The company has to become aware of the options.”

The county

Baltimore County wasn’t surprised to hear that McCormick was considering a headquarters relocation.

The topic came up several weeks ago when the company met with County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and Economic and Workforce Development Director Will Anderson.

The group meets regularly, said Fronda Cohen, director of communications for the county.

“We feel confident that they’ll keep their headquarters here in Baltimore County,” she said.

Cohen pointed out a number of advantages that the company would enjoy by staying there.

The first is obvious — its manufacturing units and research and development lab are already there. Lynn said that will continue to be the case, no matter where the corporate headquarters ends up.

“You want to be near those people, you want to be near those locations, you want to consolidate geographically,” said Cohen.

She mentioned a few other perks of the county as well, especially since it’s McCormick’s administrative offices in question — the workplace of higher-paid employees and where visitors might attend high-stakes meetings.

“You want to have a robust cultural life, so that for business purposes you want to be able to bring in people from around the world,” she said, also noting the accessibility to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Cohen also touted the ample choices of upscale homes that would be attractive to executives, as well as amenities in the county like the Hunt Valley Golf Club and high-end shopping in Towson. She mentioned stores like Tiffany & Co. or Louis Vuitton.

“Those are really right there,” said Cohen. “That all adds to the amenities and the quality of life that are very attractive for any large business.”

McCormick has had a positive relationship with the county, she said. County officials make a point of meeting with leaders of large companies like McCormick, she said.

And the company has taken advantage of workforce development resources. As recently as December 2013, the county assisted McCormick, holding a recruitment event in Hunt Valley for production technicians.

The city

Cohen touts McCormick’s 25-year-old roots in Baltimore County, but it called the city home for an entire century before that.

“McCormick has a history in Baltimore city,” said Mike Evitts, vice president of communications for the Downtown Partnership. “We’re more than happy to have discussions with McCormick as a part of their due diligence.”

But the city isn’t looking to steal the spice maker away, he said.

Like the county, the city has the airport close by. It’s centrally located in the state and accessible by various means of transit.

“Downtown is the single most transit-connected area in our region,” said Evitts. And “we have a diverse array of space available,” from waterfront properties to older buildings with a historic appeal, all with walkable surroundings.

But that doesn’t mean it’s the best choice, especially with a number of administrative employees residing north of the city.

“There are definitely some rail options, but they’re more limited if you’re coming from that area. It depends on where their employees live and where they’re trying to get to and from each day,” said Evitts. “If you’re talking about a large number of people with driving commutes, that’s a big consideration.”

The company’s roots in the city might have a sentimental appeal, he said, but he doubts that nostalgia is high on its list of business priorities.

“We’re not trying to pull them here,” he said. “But we’re happy to be at the table.”

Hopping the Maryland line

McCormick hasn’t previously said it would move out of state, but the company has said it would consider locations just over the southern Pennsylvania border for headquarters.

“One of the goals is not to impact [or] to minimally impact the current workforce commute,” said Lynn, and the border is about half an hour from the current offices.

Maryland’s northern neighbor has not heard anything directly from McCormick, said Steve Kratz, director of communications for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

“We are taking a look at it internally,” he said. “If they’re serious about looking at Pennsylvania, we want to be in contact with them.”

Kratz said it’s too early to speculate what types of incentives the state would give to McCormick, if any, but it could include grants, tax credits and abatements and workforce support.

The areas of Pennsylvania closest to Baltimore County have similar amenities, he said, such as nearby outdoor attractions in the York County area and the Harrisburg International Airport, which is about one hour from the Maryland line.

The area also has a lower cost of living and an ample workforce, he said.

It’s also likely that the tax environment in Pennsylvania is attractive to a large company like McCormick, said Christopher Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute. McCormick hasn’t named this as a factor in its search, but Summers said that the mention of Pennsylvania is a sign that policy considerations are involved.

“Regardless of the long history that a company has with the state or its roots or whatever, I think it may become less important at some point,” he said. “I don’t think that people see the tax climate in Maryland improving anytime soon.”

But the Old Line State has no intention of letting go.

“We’ve had a great relationship with McCormick,” said Karen Glenn Hood, communications director for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. “We’re going to work with them to very closely to keep them here.”

If that requires some extra incentives, it wouldn’t be the first time Maryland provided them.

In 1999, the state and Montgomery County teamed up to keep Marriott International Inc., luring it with record-setting and controversial amounts of tax breaks and incentives in the tens of millions.

In 2011, Bechtel Power Corp. promised the state to keep 1,250 jobs in Frederick through at least 2018 in exchange for a $9.5 million loan.

McCormick employs about 2,400 in Maryland, and a move would affect about 800 employees.

“McCormick is in internationally known name. It’s an iconic company,” said Hood. “It’s very important to us, to the state of Maryland, that they remain here.”