By LARRY THOMAS
Orlando, Fla.-based Connextions Inc. announced Monday that it will open a 750-employee call center early next year at the River Ridge Commerce Center in Jeffersonville.
Mike Tripp, the company’s executive vice president of contact center operations, said the 105,000-square- foot facility will open with approximately 100 employees in January and that employment will expand to 750 by the end of 2008.
Gov. Mitch Daniels said Connextions’ announcement represents a big boost in the development of the 6,000-acre River Ridge Commerce Center, which occupies about half of the former Indiana Army Ammunition Plant.
“This is the biggest of all of the steps, to date, for River Ridge and, frankly, for Clark County,” said Daniels, who pointed out that Connextions’ Jeffersonville facility will mark the fourth large call center to locate in Indiana in the past 30 months.
Daniels said the state has been involved in 49 successful economic development projects from Columbus to the Ohio River since he became governor.
Mayor Rob Waiz said Connextions’ $6 million capital investment is “another sign of the real progress we are making.”
One Southern Indiana Chairman Kerry Stemler said Thursday’s announcement represents the single largest recruitment success in the 20 years Clark and Floyd counties have had combined, organized economic-development efforts.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is economic development, and the bar has just been raised,” said Stemler.
Tripp said once the facility is fully staffed, its annual payroll will range from $15 million to $20 million, or approximately $20,000 to $27,000 per job.
The call center will begin with shifts between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., Tripp said, but there is “every probability that it will turn into a 24/7 operation before year’s end.”
Connextions is a third-party customer service provider for Fortune 100 companies. Most of its clients are in the insurance industry, but other clients range from FedEx to Mercedes-Benz.
The company will receive $3.3 million in performance-based tax credit and up to $450,000 in training grants from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Connextions will also receive a property-tax abatement from Jeffersonville by virtue of its location in the city’s Urban Enterprise Zone.
In Urban Enterprise Zones, tax abatements are granted automatically under state law. In such circumstances, all property taxes are abated for the entire 10-year period, but companies receiving the abatements must pay 49 percent of what they would have paid in taxes to the sponsoring Urban Enterprise Zone.
Conventional tax abatements must be approved by the local government’s fiscal body — either a city or town council in incorporated areas or a county council in unincorporated areas — and the 10-year abatements are phased out at a rate of 10 percent per year.
The River Ridge building was constructed on a speculative basis by Floyds Knobs-based AML Inc. and was developed in partnership with Louisville’s Capstone Realty. Both companies are involved with other properties at the 6,000-acre industrial park.
Connextions’ employment
• Orlando, Fla (headquarters) — 1,200
• Concord, N.C. — 600
• Jeffersonville — 750 (projected by the end of 2008)
To apply for Connextions’ jobs
• Send a resume and cover letter to hr@connextions.com. Company recruiters should respond within 48 hours. Interviews should begin in two to three weeks. If applicants have additional questions, they should call 407-563-4562. Connextions’ initial 100 hirings will relate to the insurance industry, but the company will provide training to new hires lacking insurance credentials.
