Council approves $650K job lure

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

City council authorized spending $650,000 to help persuade a call-center company to locate a $2.7 million expansion here that would create 500 new jobs downtown.

VXI Global Solutions will make a decision in the next couple of weeks, and it looks promising for Youngstown, said Nick Covelli, the company’s senior vice president for global sales and marketing.

“We’re hopeful it will work out in Youngstown,” Covelli said. “It’s our intent to go forward in Youngstown based on the fact that our experience there is extremely positive.”

If VXI chooses Youngstown, city Finance Director David Bozanich said the city would provide at least $650,000 — $350,000 in cash to the company and $300,000 in utility improvements to the fifth floor of the city-owned 20 Federal Place on West Federal Street.

“We’re going through the process of providing a commitment to get that project in Youngstown,” he said. “If we didn’t have some confidence to get this deal done, we wouldn’t” agree to the $650,000.

Also, the city has spent about $70,000 for work on the building’s fifth floor, most of it to remove a nearly 8,000-square-foot fur vault there, Bozanich said.

Council approved legislation Wednesday for the $650,000. Final approval is needed by the city’s board of control. The board will OK those expenditures if VXI expands in Youngstown, said Bozanich, one of the board’s three members.

The company already occupies the building’s fourth floor with 450 employees with plans to hire another 200 by next month. That business opened in October 2009.

The Youngstown location handles inbound sales calls and inbound customer- care calls that include providing information about products and billing for various companies.

If the expansion occurs it would be 500 additional jobs on 20 Federal Place’s fifth floor, which has been vacant for about 17 years, Bozanich said. Both floors at the former Phar-Mor corporate office are 31,000 square feet.

VXI wants to have its new location up and running by July or August, said T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director.

The starting pay for VXI jobs in Youngstown is $9 an hour. Top employees at VXI earn $800 to $1,000 a week, company officials say.

VXI invested about $4 million on the fourth floor with the city giving $600,000 to the company in federal stimulus funds and the state providing about $700,000 in tax credits.