Call Center to add 450 jobs to metro...

[edsas]

From the World Herald:

(I would've linked it, guys, but my address bar isn't working at the moment.)

Auto Club Group, the not-for-profit association of Midwestern AAA clubs, will open a new call center in Omaha in September that eventually will employ 450 people to handle calls for road assistance, travel arrangements and other services.


A new call center, to open in September at 148th and F Streets, will have 450 employees to handle calls from AAA members in eight states: Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Indiana.

And the club's chief executive said Thursday that if the new center succeeds, the group may decide next year to open a second call center next door, just as large, to handle insurance-related calls.

Charles Podowski said that if Nebraska had not offered a competitive tax incentive package, the group probably would not have looked seriously at an Omaha location.

Once Omaha became an option, he said, the work of Nebraska officials, especially Gov. Mike Johanns, Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey and Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce personnel, was the key element in choosing Omaha.

"It was the passion and the support and the information that was provided to us by the people in Nebraska that made the difference," said Podowski, who said he has extensive experience in choosing new business sites. "I have never seen the kind of commitment to bringing in new businesses that I saw from the people in your state."

The three recalled a meeting months ago in Lincoln at which an Omaha location was pitched. "Omaha is always ready to go," Johanns said. "They're aggressive, they're progressive, they're out there to create jobs."

Nebraska's tax incentives will provide Auto Club Group with about $5 million in benefits over several years. In return, the chamber estimated, the call center will create $45.9 million in direct annual benefits for employee salaries and spending and company spending.

Spinoff jobs and other factors will add another $32.6 million in annual economic benefit, the chamber said.

Plans for the call center were announced at a press conference at the chamber's offices.

Johanns said the project is "a perfect example" of how the state's incentive system works. If a current petition drive succeeds in repealing the incentives, he said, it would harm the state's ability to gain such jobs.

But the leader of the petition drive said the call center jobs - most of them paying less than $20,000 a year - will be costly to taxpayers at a time when state and local government services, including education, are in danger of cutbacks.

"The No. 1 factor for economic development is an education system that produces children who can read, write and do arithmetic," said Tim Rinne of Lincoln, state coordinator for Nebraskans for Peace, one of the groups sponsoring the petition.

Rinne said it will be years before the wages at the call center will make up for tax revenue loss caused by the incentives, which date back to the 1987 passage of Legislative Bill 775.

"The numbers don't add up in any way, shape or form," he said. "Less than $20,000 a year is nothing to be bragging about."

David Brown, president of the Omaha chamber, disagreed and said that the Auto Club and its new employees will pay much more in taxes to the state, including support for schools, than the company will receive in credits.

"You've got 350 more taxpayers getting paid a great wage, all paying taxes, with full benefits," Brown said. "You can't ask for anything better than that. This is a great economic boon to the state."

Mark Grieb, president of AAA Nebraska, said wages for the 400 customer service people, all but 80 of them full time, will average about $9.50 an hour. Salaries for managers and the professional staff will be competitive with Omaha's existing call center operations, he said.

If the Auto Club Group had picked its second choice for the center - Des Moines - the Omaha office would have lost its existing 75 call center jobs, Grieb said.

Instead, those 75 people will move to the new center, to be located in a 45,000-square-foot building to be constructed starting next month in the Altech Business Park at 148th and F Streets. The Lund Co. of Omaha will own the building, which is being developed by Lund and Workstage Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Auto Club Group will spend $4 million to $5 million on equipment, with an annual payroll between $15 million and $18 million a year and other expenses of $2 million to $3 million annually, Podowski said.

Hiring for the 375 additional positions will start in mid-May and is to be completed by early 2005.

Fahey said the city and state would do everything it could to help the new call center. "We want you to succeed," he said.

Auto Club Group will close smaller call centers in Des Moines, Aurora, Ill., Madison, Wis., and suburban Minneapolis. It will keep call centers in Dearborn and Grand Rapids, Mich., although the Omaha center will be the largest.

The consolidation means the group's overall call center employment will decline by about 100 people, Podowski said. The three remaining centers will be connected so they can transfer calls and exchange information.

Podowski said the company expects to meet its hiring plans, even though Omaha has many existing call center operations, because its benefit package makes it "an employer of choice."

The group's call centers will receive more than 5 million calls this year, he said, and local retail offices receive another 3 million. AAA Nebraska's 12 retail offices will remain where they are, and the other employees in the state headquarters will remain at 910 N. 96th St. in Omaha.

Podowski said Omaha has strong technology for call centers, a good work force and a good quality of life, although other communities offered those benefits, too. He said AAA's insurance business is growing, now accounting for about 85 percent of its annual $1.7 billion in revenue.

AAA Nebraska has about 198,200 members, out of Auto Club Group's 4.1 million members.

[guy4omaha]

No these are not probably six-figure salary jobs. But we do need jobs in every strata. And Omaha is continuing to get them. Looks like we continue on our march toward 1,000,000. Omaha... life is good here.

[Minneapolis Boy]

I see Pacific Life is also adding a call center with several hundred jobs. More good news for the metrO!

[edsas]

Interesting that this announcement includes the potential to total 900 new jobs pending all goes well with the first call center. There is every reason to expect that things will indeed go well enough to generate that second call center. And unlike outbound telemarketing, this is the sort of telephone job people won't shy away from.

[eomaha]

Actually, the Pacific Life jobs aren't a certainty yet... we're in competition for them with Lincoln!

[Minneapolis Boy]

Yep, in my enthusiasm over additional jobs I forgot that Lincoln and Omaha are competing for the Pacific Life call center. Regardless, it's a plus for the larger region!