THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603130115
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
A contract for design of the proposed Direct Marketing Enterprises facility in Port Centre commerce park has been awarded to HBA Architecture and Interior Design of Virginia Beach.
DME is a catalog sales company. The buildings will be on 22.32 acres, including a single-story, 170,000-square-foot warehouse and a 30,000-square-foot, one-story, steel-framed office building to house computer and telephone communications.
The $8.5 million building is scheduled for completion this year, more than 12 months later than the company originally announced.
DME said a year ago that it would move its catalog sales company to Portsmouth from Long Island, N.Y., stating at the time that construction would begin in 1995.
As part of the deal, the city spent $565,000 to improve the site and the state contributed $500,000 for site work and job training.
DME has said it will hire 300 local people to work in warehousing, shipping and receiving, maintenance and security, keypunching, computer operations and customer service.
Phil Tuning of the city's Economic Development Department staff said the company had been delayed because the bank doing their financing required extensive environmental reports on the site.
``I think all of that is done now and they are ready to move along,'' Tuning said. by CNB