From my local newspaper this caught my eye this AM :
(Then I said "Huh?" because real estate in Dallas-Fort Worth
fell off a cliff starting in May.)
Company to add 1,400 jobs in Fort Worth
By Ilene Aleshire
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Countrywide Financial Corp. plans to add 4,000 jobs in the Metroplex -- 1,400-1,500 of them in Fort Worth -- over the next two years, the company said.
And it might add 2,500 more jobs in the Richardson area a few years later, as the company continues an aggressive expansion.
"Right now, we have 41,000 people in our workforce nationwide," said Rick Simon, a spokesman. "We expect that will be at 80,000 by around the end of 2008."
Countrywide is the No. 1 originator and No. 1 servicer of home loans, Simon said. "We originate about 13 percent of the loans in the country; we hope to double that in the next four years or so," he said.
The company, based in Calabasas, Calif., started to open offices in North Texas about 20 years ago, beginning with a large data-processing and loan-service office in Plano. It was the company's first major expansion outside California.
Texas now has the second largest number of Countrywide employees in the United States, after California. At the start of this year, Countrywide had 4,800 employees in the Metroplex, Simon said. Now, it has 5,900.
About 600 of those people are in Fort Worth, where Countrywide bought the former Motorola plant at 5401 N. Beach St. early this year. The rest are in the Plano center, which is the base for the company's consumer markets division and is one of its two major loan processing centers.
Simon said Countrywide is still renovating the Fort Worth building, but expects to finish work by the end of March. At that point, it will begin adding the 1,400-1,500 jobs, which will be similar to the ones in Plano.
The company also is buying three vacant buildings at Galatyn Park Urban Center near the Central Expressway in Richardson's high-tech corridor, with plans to add 2,500 workers there by the end of 2006 or early 2007, Simon said.
The city of Richardson offered Countrywide $950,000 in tax breaks over 10 years in return for the job creation, Brian Fraser of the Richardson Chamber of Commerce said.
Simon said the company is still waiting for other approvals at the county and state level before moving forward on the deal. Countrywide hasn't closed on the purchase of the property yet, he said, but he was optimistic that the deal will go through.
Countrywide is looking ahead to the point when it will reach capacity in Fort Worth and at the Richardson location, and has tentative plans to build more offices on property adjoining Richardson buildings.
This second phase of the expansion plan is still in the very, very early stages, Simon said, but it could happen one to three years after Countrywide reaches capacity at the Richardson location.
Countrywide's plans are good news for the Metroplex -- particularly Richardson, said Bernard "Bud" Weinstein, an economist and researcher at the University of North Texas in Denton.
"There's been a tremendous amount of hand-wringing in the real estate community about the vacancy rate there, which last year was about the same as downtown Dallas -- 30 percent or higher," Weinstein said.
Weinstein predicted several years ago that the vacant office space -- much of it Class A -- left by the departure of telecom companies would attract new tenants faster than similarly vacant space in downtown Dallas.
"Most businesses, particularly service industries, want to be in suburban locations where it's easier for employees to get to work, where there's housing," he said.
Weinstein estimated that the bulk of the Countrywide jobs will probably pay around $30,000 annually. This is considerably less than many of the high-paying, high-tech jobs that have been lost in the Plano-Richardson area, he said, "But still it's great to have those jobs."
Countrywide decided two years ago that its rapid expansion would occur outside California. The high cost of doing business there and "the very litigious nature of the state of California," sealed the decision, Simon said.
The company already had a presence in Texas, and has had a good relationship with the state and other government organizations here, Simon said. That factored into the decision to expand in North Texas.
Ilene Aleshire (817) 390-7339
ialeshire@star-telegram.com
(Can anyone explain why this company would EXPAND at this
time ?)
-------------------------
Registration Required (www.dfw.com)
-------------------------- |
