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Around the Old Dominion

Danville attracts call center jobs

Virginia Business
June 2004

Danville knows all about losing jobs to foreign competitors. So local officials enjoyed an ironic twist in April when a Mexico-based firm announced that it was sending a slew of new jobs to Danville. Telvista Inc., headquartered in Tijuana, will open a 62,000-square-foot inbound technical support call center in the city’s Airside Industrial Park later this year, a move that promises to bring 600 jobs to the Southside region over the next 30 months.

The decision by Telvista, which provides customer contact centers around the world, to expand its operations into Virginia was not made by chance. Danville joined forces with the Virginia Economic Development Partner-ship and lobbied hard for the opportunity, offering Telvista a $200,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund and another $300,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnifi-cation and Community Revitalization Com-mission. The company is also eligible to receive further tax credits for locating in an enterprise zone.

Telvista CEO Higinio Sanchez admitted that the incentives helped the company choose Danville over Arizona, North Carolina and other states interested in hosting a new call center, but he also said that Danville’s business-friendly environment and large pool of “motivated” potential employees to choose from were definite bonuses. The company plans to begin hiring by the end of the year.

Return to Virginia Business - June 2004