THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060506
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Newport News' planning and development director confirmed Thursday that the city is talking to MCI Communications Corp. about opening a customer service center that would employ up to 1,000 people.
``They're looking,'' said Paul Miller, Newport News planning and development director. ``It's not a done deal. We're still negotiating.''
This is the third significant economic development announcement for the Peninsula this year. Gateway 2000 and United Parcel Service both decided to open distribution facilities that would initially employ up to 1,000 and 500 people, respectively.
``We've gotten a few home runs in the last year. We almost have three,'' Miller said.
The payroll of the UPS facility may reach 1,000 in a few months, he said. It already employs about 800. Miller expects the MCI facility to reach 1,000 people in less than three years if it comes to the area.
A restructuring announcement at MCI this summer, however, has tempered the news of a new customer service office.
The Washington-based company announced in July that it expected to cut as many as 3,000 jobs, or 7 percent of its work force, as part of a restructuring and management shuffle. At the time, MCI had 40,667 employees. It outlined a plan to reduce costs in an effort to boost profitability.
Miller denies that the company is just transferring jobs to a different, and cheaper, location.
``This one (facility) won't replace anybody,'' he said.
``This is growth.''
Information about incentives and MCI's pay scale were unavailable late Thursday.
The communications company looked all over the region for a suitable building and appears to have decided on an empty Lowe's building in the Sherwood Shopping Center, in the Denbigh area of Newport News.
The city will buy the real estate and lease it back to MCI, said Hans Gant, president of Forward Hampton Roads, the economic development arm of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
``The decision was driven by finding a suitable, existing building,'' he said.
MCI looked at half a dozen sites in South Hampton Roads and an equal number on the Peninsula.
``They'd already decided to be in this region,'' he said. MEMO: This summer, a flurry of high-profile companies announced new
operations in Hampton Roads: Virginia Beach: Avis
Norfolk: Trans World Airlines Inc.
Chesapeake: Canon Computer Systems Inc.
Hampton: Gateway 2000 Inc.
Newport News: United Parcel Service
KEYWORDS: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT by CNB