The call-center company, based in San Diego, has leased an additional 40,000 square feet in downtown Cleveland and plans to hire 75 to 100 people before August.
View full sizeS&P Data LLC, a call-center company, recently tripled its space at the Post Office Plaza building in downtown Cleveland and expects to grow from 275 to 600 employees within 12 months. The Post Office Plaza building, on West 3rd Street at the Tower City complex, is home to several call centers. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- S&P Data LLC, which opened a downtown Cleveland call center in 2009, has tripled its office space and plans to more than double its size here.
The company, based in San Diego, Calif., recently signed a lease on 40,000 additional square feet at the Post Office Plaza building at the Tower City complex. The deal brings S&P's downtown offices to more than 64,000 square feet and makes room for 325 or so new employees -- on top of the 275 people who already fill seats there.
David Borts, a company partner and chief operating officer, said S&P hopes to fill 75 to 100 positions in Cleveland before August. The rest of the hiring would occur by summer 2014.
"We really think it's the first of many expansions," Borts said, adding that S&P is working with the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank real estate brokerage to find other potential call-center sites in Northeast Ohio.
Bill Saltzman, an executive managing director in Newmark's Cleveland office, represented S&P in the original deal and the expansion.
S&P Data, often referred to as "SP Data," announced in 2008 that it would make Ohio its American bulkhead. Before that, the company's presence was limited to Canada because of favorable exchange rates and a large labor pool in the Toronto area.
As the U.S. dollar weakened, though, it made less sense to manage calls for American companies through Canadian facilities. So S&P shifted work for its American clients to the United States, starting with Cleveland.
When Ohio approved tax breaks for the company in October 2008, S&P planned to create 400 jobs in the state within three years. Growth hasn't occurred that fast, but executives' short-term hiring plans would put S&P well beyond that benchmark in downtown Cleveland. The company hasn't received any new incentives, but a five-year state tax credit -- tied to jobs and payroll -- still applies.
Borts would not identify the company's clients. He described the Cleveland-area jobs as "high-end-call-center work" for major businesses unwilling to send their calls overseas. Starting salaries are roughly $28,000 to $32,000, but Borts said employees can make as much as $60,000 a year, based on performance.
S&P is seeing more business-to-business marketing, and most of its calls -- with consumers or companies -- are inbound. At the Cleveland call center, the company is targeting business-to-business work, financial services, satellite broadcast services, cable services and energy.
Led by industry veteran Dan Plashkes, S&P has grown to 2,000 seats, or an estimated 2,600 to 2,800 employees at two U.S. and three Canadian call centers and its headquarters. The company is planning a call center in Las Vegas and hopes to open another Canadian facility within a year. But Borts predicts most of S&P's growth will happen in the Midwest, with Cleveland at its core.
"We do think that the majority of our growth will come in that region," he said.
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