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Here is today's summary of economic development news, presented by the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
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Portfolio Recovery Associates adding 130 call center jobs in Birmingham
Published: Tuesday, August 02, 2011, 1:31 PM Updated: Tuesday, August 02, 2011, 1:39 PM
The specialized financial services company and consumer debt purchaser and collector has committed to a five-year, 17,000-square-foot lease starting Sept. 1, in Beacon Ridge Towers at 600 Beacon Parkway atop Red Mountain
That facility will be PRA's new local call center, staffed initially with 70 employees who will move into the new space and room for up to 130 more which will be added after the move as the company grows.
In addition to the new call center space, PRA will retain its operations center at 2317 Third Ave. North downtown. The center is home to Revenue Discovery Systems, a division PRA Government Services LLC. Norfolk, Va.-based PRA has nearly 200 employees in Alabama and has been in Birmingham since 2005.
more...
Birmingham News
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Hackleburg's Wrangler plant, destroyed in April tornadoes, to be rebuilt
Updated: Monday, August 01, 2011, 8:01 PM
HACKLEBURG, Alabama --- A Wrangler plant destroyed when a powerful tornado struck the city of Hackleburg will be rebuilt, the company said Monday.
The plant will be bigger, with a greater capacity that could add 50 additional jobs, according to a statement from Wrangler's parent company, VF Corp.
The decision came as a relief to the northwest Alabama city, one of the state's hardest-hit communities during the April 27 tornado outbreak. The distribution plant was Hackleburg's biggest employer, and its fate was considered a gauge for the city's future.
"Everybody's really excited," said Marion County Commissioner Don Barnwell, whose district includes Hackleburg and who lives in the city. "We feel good for Hackleburg, the employees, everyone."
Barnwell said the county offered VF Corp. $200,000 in incentives to reopen. The city of Hackleburg chipped in an additional $100,000, and the state of Alabama put up millions of dollars in cash and other incentives, state Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, said.
more...
Birmingham News
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Marshall Space Flight Center forms National Institute for Rocket Propulsion Systems
Published: Tuesday, August 02, 2011, 10:19 AM Updated: Tuesday, August 02, 2011, 10:42 AM
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Deciding to help create its own new missions after the end of the space shuttle program, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is forming the National Institute for Rocket Propulsion Systems. Center Director Robert Lightfoot announced the institute at the annual center director's breakfast in Huntsville.
The institute is "just in a planning phase now," Lightfoot told several hundred city and state leaders and contractors at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. "But we really are setting this up," Lightfoot said, adding he hopes to have it up and running by 2014. The institute will have a three-part mission, Lightfoot said. First will be "stewardship" of the existing propulsion knowledge developed at Marshall and other American rocket centers. Second will be focusing on technology needs for future space flight. Third will be serving as a "solutions facilitator." Lightfoot said Marshall hopes to be a contact and conduit for propulsion assistance to government and industry both here and abroad. The center director's breakfast is an annual tradition a which Marshall directors review accomplishments and spell out the coming missions. In the past, it has been a full buffet breakfast at a local hotel. This year, it was a continental breakfast at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. "If you haven't figured it out," Lightfoot said at one point, affordability is going to be key going forward.
more...
Huntsville Times
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Best,
Wendy Wallace Johnson
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