Call Center Headed to Downtown
UPDATE: The company confirmed in an announcement today that Nashville would be the headquarters location for the company. IQT has operations in Canada as well. The company said it will create 900 jobs over five years, which exceeds the necessary job creation targets to obtain a local incentives package.
As originally reported: Well, it’s out. The big whatever that has been circulating is IQT Inc., a third party customer contact company, looking to bring 900 workers into downtown for a call center.
A deal must be close because IQT already has seven job openings on its website – administrative assistant, national training manager, quality assurance monitor, supervisor, workforce intraday analyst, operations manager and national workforce management. The Nashville address for the New York-based company is listed as 105 Molloy Street, Suite 200.
That address would be the same building as XO Communications. Within the real estate circles, the chatter immediately centered on the question of how a company is going to fit 900 people into the 42,000-square-foot, renovated Music Mix Factory building on Second Avenue South.
One real estate official noted that perhaps three shifts could work but it would be an extremely tight fit. Even with three shifts, there would be 600 people in the building twice a day.
Others mentioned floor plates not being big enough and column spacing making the space difficult. XO Communications, which has the office space below the Mix Factory, is trying to sublease 45,000 square feet.
That would more than double the space for such an operation. A real estate official said that would mean a maximum of 610 people at seven per 1,000 square feet on a single shift. That would mean spreading people over two or three shifts. “I’m not sure there are enough parking spaces to do it in less than three shifts,” the official said.
Earlier this year, Metro Council approved changes to the incentives the city offers companies, particularly technology companies. Given then the number of jobs the company supposedly is bringing, it should easily qualify for the local payment in lieu of taxes incentive.
