Tucson: Call Center Adds Inmates

Call center adding 70 jobs, weighs possibly 600 more

By Josh Brodesky

ARIZONA DAILY STAR 10/30/09

APAC Customer Services Inc. will be hiring about 70 new workers for its second call center in Tucson, with plans to hire an additional 600 people in the future.

Starting pay will be in the range of $9.50 to $13.50 an hour depending on skills, said Andrew B. Szafran, APAC’s chief financial officer.

APAC employs about 1,500 people between its two loca­tions. While Szafran said the company will be filling the 70 positions through the first quarter of next year as busi­ness develops, the timeline for the additional 600 jobs re­mains less clear. “We, of course, would like that to happen as quickly as possible,” he said.

APAC operates an east-side call center at 1650 S. Research Loop, where it employs about 1,200 people.

Earlier this week, it was announced that APAC for­mally leased space for its sec­ond call center at 2929 E. Corona, near the Tucson In­ternational Airport. That space had been leased to United Parcel Service, which until recently relied on Teletech Inc., another heavy­weight in the call center busi­ness, to track parcels for it.

But UPS shifted some of its business to APAC, which in turn hired many of Teletech’s customer service representa­tives.

Bill DiVito and Howard Kong, of Grubb & Ellis Co., represented the landlord, In­tercontinental Real Estate, during negotiations on the 10­year lease with APAC for the 101,436 square-foot space.

APAC currently employs 260 people at the south-side location, which is where the 70 new employees will also work, Szafran said.

The work at the second lo­cation will not be limited to tracking parcels for UPS, but will also involve inbound calls for wireless companies and health-care providers.

“We are doing work for UPS in that site, but it is not the en­tirety of that site,” Szafran said. “That site has the capaci­ty to do other work.”

Contact reporter Josh Brodesky at 573-4178 or brodesky@azstarnet.com