
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 28, 1990                   TAG: 9006280087
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: ROANOKE                                LENGTH: Short

JOB PROJECTIONS HIGH AT UPS HUB

United Parcel Service said Wednesday it expects to employ 656 people by 1996 at its new distribution center opening next spring. The hub, under construction near Roanoke Regional Airport, could have as many as 1,341 employees by the end of the decade, the company said.

The maximum employment for the Thirlane Road building of almost 200,000 square feet will be 518 full-time and 823 part-time workers, said a spokesman at the company's Greenwich, Conn. headquarters.

The $19.8-million hub will open in May with 536 employees, more than 50 percent above employment at the UPS center in Statesman Park.

The new jobs are expected to pay at least $11 an hour. Average pay for UPS employees in Roanoke now is about $34,000 a year. The Virginia Employment Commission has received thousands of applications for jobs at the new hub, which will serve delivery routes in the Roanoke Valley, Montgomery, Franklin and Botetourt counties.

Work at the site, including filling in a large sinkhole, is about 80 percent complete. About 5,000 square feet of concrete was poured Wednesday.

A site is being prepared along Interstate 581 for a three-acre pond to hold water draining from the UPS site. Runoff from 100 acres of Roanoke Regional Airport that drains onto UPS property also will go into the pond.

More than 70 percent of the building's steel frame is up and installation of the roof and siding will follow. Work on the electrical system will start in July and installation of the conveyors needed to carry UPS packages will begin in August.

by CNB