Banking On Talent
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ore than three years down the road, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks continue to dictate location decisions by financial services companies looking to site business continuity operations outside of New York City. One recent
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| H&R Block's new $138-million headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., now under construction, was one of the largest U.S. financial services projects begun in 2004. To be known as the H&R Block Center, the 17-story building is on target for a late 2006 occupancy. The company plans to move about 1,500 employees into the building. It tentatively plans a second phase of the complex for 2013. |
The location will be home to one of CSFB's business continuity sites. CSFB, which has headquarters in New York, operates businesses including securities underwriting, sales and trading, investment banking, private equity, financial advisory services, investment research and asset management. The company is a business unit of Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group.
CSFB's site selection process began in the fall of 2003 with a brief survey of U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, looking at categories such as work force, population growth, existing population, university systems, school systems and a variety of other demographics. That helped trim the list to about a dozen cities, says Phil Struthers, a director of the company's IT division.
"After a deeper dive into the statistics, we narrowed it down to four areas — Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; Tampa; Baltimore and Charlotte," Struthers says. "Then we made site visits to each location and talked to area universities and employers. We looked at available labor, salary structures, population growth and where we could attract a pool of people in any particular area."
Struthers says that since some employees would be transferring from CSFB offices in New York and London, it was important to select a location where they would be comfortable. The final two candidates were Tampa and RTP, with the North Carolina site winning out.
"Things really swayed us to Raleigh," Struthers says. "It's a tremendous place to live and there's a fantastic university system here, good public schools, good technical school, a good business climate and there's net population growth. There's an exceptional talent pool here, and a good, growing work force. The area's consistently rated one of the best places to work and live, and it has good government policies concerning growth."
The finalists in the selection process were all on the Eastern Seaboard. Struthers says CSFB didn't want too much of a time differential from the company's London offices. CSFB has major operations in London with similar international business responsibilities to the New York office.
Incentives also played a role in the deal. The state committed US$3 million from Gov. Mike Easley's discretionary One North Carolina Fund and CSFB will receive $8.9 million in Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) funding over 10 years. Wake County will also provide incentives of up to $2 million.
CSFB's new facility will house global support staff, including operations and technology positions with average salaries of nearly $72,000 per year. The building's size is still being planned, but it will be in the 150,000-200,000-sq.-ft. (14,000-18,600-sq.-m.) range, company officials say.
CSFB is currently leasing space in RTP from Cisco Systems while its new facility is constructed. Plans call for the new building to open in mid-2006. Potentially the first of two phases, the initial operation will eventually employ 420, with about 80 employees transferring from other locations.
The North Carolina Department of Commerce has high hopes for the long-term impact of the CSFB deal. It estimates it will generate a cumulative gross state product value of about $2.4 billion over the life of the JDIG grant. The department also estimates the deal will have a cumulative net state revenue impact of $83.7 million.
Because CSFB is locating in an urban county, one of the terms of the JDIG grant is that it will be required to contribute nearly $2.9 million to the state's Industrial Development Fund for infrastructure improvements in rural N.C.
North Carolina, home to the headquarters of two of the five largest banks in the U.S. — Bank of America and Wachovia — is certainly no stranger to the financial services industry. The state got another plum industry project in 2004, Citi Cards' $35-million call center in Guilford County. Citi Cards says it will create 900 jobs with an average salary of $31,400.
Another division of Citigroup, CitiFinancial, has also found new quarters in the Carolinas. CitiFinancial is building a 165,000-sq.-ft. (15,300-sq.-m.) major operations center in Fort Mill, S.C., which will eventually be home to 1,600 employees. The facility, located six miles (9.6 km.) south of Charlotte and due to open in early 2006, will create 900 new jobs with the remainder being consolidated from current CitiFinancial offices in the Charlotte metro area, says CitiGroup spokesman Rob Julavits. It will serve as the back office for CitiFinancial's Auto Service Center and Auto Branch Network with responsibilities including customer service and collections.
"We wanted to stay in the general Charlotte area, but wanted to make a commitment to South Carolina as well," Julavits says.
