General Motors has picked a former UPS facility in Roswell for a technology development center that could bring upwards of 1,000 jobs to the region, according to three people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

Metro Atlanta was one of several East Coast cities in the running for the operation, and the people said the company would likely not announce the deal until January. The three asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

General Motors spokeswoman Juli Huston-Rough said the company would not comment on “rumor or speculation.” UPS did not immediately comment.

The executives said the company purchased the sprawling Innoplex facility, a UPS information technology facility that was shuttered in 2009, for one of GM’s four planned “information technology innovation centers.” The centers aim to bring more technology development under GM’s roof, as much of that work is now being done by other firms.

GM has announced the locations of only two of those sites so far. The first center will be in Austin, Texas, with plans to hire 500 programmers and software specialists. And the carmaker said recently it will hire 1,500 more workers at a center in Warren, Mich.

The courtship of GM is Georgia’s latest bid to attract more “knowledge-based” jobs as the state attempts to shift from agricultural and manufacturing jobs to higher-paying research gigs.

In recent weeks, Porsche broke ground on its North American headquarters at a site near the airport, Panasonic opened a research center that could staff about 100 in Midtown and AT&T said it was scouting Atlanta for a sought-after research hub that could spawn startups.