Broomfield office-supply giant Corporate Express Inc. on Thursday picked Aurora over Wichita for a customer-service call center that will bring 600 jobs to Aurora.
The company – owned by Amsterdam’s Buhrmann NV – also said it will create jobs at a recently opened credit center in Northglenn.
Incentives topping $800,000 helped snag the deals.
Corporate Express will open the call center at 777 S. Sable Blvd. in Aurora. The 83,000- square-foot center will handle customer service for the company’s 28 U.S. distribution centers.
“This is going to become our national, state-of-the-art customer-contact center for all U.S. operations,” spokesman Van Hindes said.
Employees in the company’s regional distribution centers will be offered transfers. The company expects to fill the remaining positions with local hires, he said.
Wendy Mitchell, president of the Aurora Economic Development Council, called the company’s decision “an incredible opportunity” for Aurora.
“Corporate Express is a wonderful name-brand company bringing 600 jobs to the state of Colorado,” she said. “I think this is something that will help us build our corporate portfolio.”
State, county and city officials won the call center with $752,717 in incentives. The package includes $480,000 in state job-training money, $69,715 in Arapahoe County personal property-tax rebates and a $203,000 waiver of Aurora’s sales and use tax.
Separately, the company leased a 65,000-square-foot center at 555 W. 112th Ave. in Northglenn that will house credit and collections operations as well as some financial and information-technology functions.
The company expects to bring as many as 85 new jobs to Northglenn. It also will relocate some workers to the site from its Broomfield headquarters, a Westminster facility and 28 existing centers. Eventually, the center will house as many as 500 workers, Hindes said.
Northglenn has waived $45,000 in use taxes and permit and plan-check fees. Additionally, Adams County will refund half of the company’s personal property taxes through 2009 with a maximum of $29,924.
The company has moved 50 workers to the Northglenn site. Workers from Westminster will relocate to Northglenn when a lease expires in mid-2006.
The company expects to begin transitioning workers to the Aurora center over the next 12 months. The bulk of the moves will occur during the second and third quarters of 2006, Hindes said.
Corporate Express, with $4.5 billion in North American sales in 2004, employs 1,150 in Colorado. That number will grow to more than 1,800 once the new hires and transfers are completed, Hindes said.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
