General Electric Co. has put Boston on its short list of landing spots for a new global headquarters as a self-imposed year-end deadline to make a decision approaches.

The Fairfield, Connecticut-based conglomerate is eyeing sites in the Seaport District for a new headquarters that could bring approximately 500 employees and the highest-profile corporate presence to a neighborhood already bristling with development. GE’s list of finalists also includes New York City and Providence, the Boston Globe reported.

“Boston is in a very good position,” said David Begelfer, CEO of commercial real estate development group NAIOP Massachusetts. “(GE) has jobs in Massachusetts already, and Boston has a buzz about it right now.”

The company has had discussions with Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, and could be seeking property tax breaks and corporate tax credits, the Globe reported. The company also could qualify for state Infrastructure Investment Incentive (I-Cubed) grants if it meets job creation requirements.

But other states, including New York, are offering generous tax breaks to GE, according to multiple reports.

CEO Jeffrey Immelt announced in June that the company was scouting locations outside Connecticut, citing newly-enacted taxes on corporations that have operations in multiple states. Since then, reports have emerged that GE is considering locations in at least 11 other states, including New York, Rhode Island, Georgia and North Carolina.

GE is looking at sites on the South Boston waterfront to buy or lease office space or make a deal for a build-to-suit headquarters, the Globe reported. Depending upon the company’s timetable for occupancy, multiple sites in the neighborhood could be a good fit.

Developer Skanska USA is looking for an anchor tenant for 121 Seaport, a 17-story, 400,000-square-foot office building under construction with a projected January 2018 completion date. And New York-based Tishman Speyer has begun site work on a 13-story, 370,000-square-foot speculative office building at the former Anthony’s Pier 4 restaurant site on Northern Avenue with a projected 2018 completion date.

The neighborhood also has 400,000 square feet of Boston Redevelopment Authority-approved permits for office space that would be built on 12 acres of surface parking lots recently acquired by Newton-based WS Development for $359 million.

GE’s Bay State presence includes its jet engine factory in Lynn and the GE Healthcare Life Sciences division, which relocated this year from Princeton and Piscataway, New Jersey, to the former Hewlett-Packard site at 200 Forest St. in Marlborough. After signing a 15-year lease for 209,855 square feet at 200 Forest St. in January, GE opened the new facility for 500 employees in its research, bioprocessing, medical imaging, in vitro diagnostics and services segments.

Immelt has sought to reposition GE as an innovation leader, and the proximity to Boston and Cambridge’s research universities and high-tech talent pool could be a major draw.

GE has not ruled out remaining in Connecticut, however, and the high-profile outside search could help it leverage additional concessions from the administration of Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

“If it’s not Connecticut, I think we have a very good chance,” NAIOP’s Begelfer said. “New York is pitching hard, no question. But I think they would prefer to be someplace where you’re known for innovation, and that’s Boston.”