Company to bring 200 jobs downtown

By David Skolnick

Youngstown’s mayor will discuss the city’s economic climate on C-SPAN today.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mayor Jay Williams is to announce today a “major investment in the central business district that is expected to result in the creation of hundreds of new jobs.”

The mayor wouldn’t give specifics Tuesday about the company coming to Youngstown. The details will be given at a 2 p.m. press conference today.

The Vindicator learned that the business is a call center company expanding its operations to a location of about 30,000-square-feet at the city-owned 20 Federal Place formerly occupied by Infocision Management Corp., another call center operation. The city-owned building at 20 W. Federal St. used to be the headquarters of the former Phar-Mor.

The company coming to Youngstown is expected to open for business before the end of the year and hire about 200 employees to start. That number is expected to increase in 2010. The company’s business is not relocating its headquarters to Youngstown, and chose the city for an expansion project, the newspaper has learned.

“It will be a very, very significant announcement,” Williams said.

Infocision closed its call center on the fourth floor of 20 Federal Place in February. The company employed 165 workers at the Youngstown location. Infocision relocated to facilities it owns in Boardman and Austintown.

In other economic news, Williams is to appear sometime between 8 and 8:30 a.m. today on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal Program” to discuss Youngstown’s economic climate.

Williams said he’ll talk about the impact the federal economic stimulus package has had on Youngstown, how the city is addressing its high foreclosure and unemployment rates as well as Entrepreneur magazine recently naming Youngstown as one of the top 10 cities in the United States to start a business.

“It’s another good way to get the message out,” Williams said.

skolnick@vindy.com