C3i, a technology company that serves the life sciences industry, will create 256 jobs at a new help desk center in CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park East, Jenkins Township. The project was announced by Michael Rossman, Director of the Governor’s Action Team, at the flex building at 501 Keystone Avenue recently constructed on speculation by Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services.
The new office is needed because C3i recently won large contracts with two global pharmaceutical companies to provide help desk support services for campus and field sales based personnel. The company expects to begin receiving calls in the new 25,000 square foot office in June.
C3i will create 100 jobs initially and another 156 within the next three years. Positions to be filled include help desk technicians and management personnel such as supervisors, trainers, quality assurance analysts, and subject matter experts.
C3i CEO and co-founder Joel Morse said the new office will be open 24 hours a day and while all calls in this center will be handled in English, they will originate from anywhere in the world. “A pharmaceutical sales representative in Australia requiring English language support will have their call routed to this center,” he said.
This will be the third operation opened by C3i in a Mericle building. In 2007, C3i opened an office in the East Mountain Corporate Center in Plains Township and in 2012 it opened a hardware services center in CenterPoint East. C3i employs more than 350 people in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Morse cited a number of factors that led to C3i’s decision to open the new help desk center in CenterPoint. These included the area’s productive workforce, the operational synergies of having offices and hardware depot services centers in close proximity to each other, and the area’s pro-business approach led by Mericle, the Greater Pittston Chamber of Commerce, Jenkins Township, Luzerne County and the Pittston Area School District.
Morse thanked Mericle for making an investment in speculative construction in CenterPoint. “The fact that the CenterPoint buildings were up and ready made it much easier for us to make the decisions to locate our hardware services center and help desk center here in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” he said.
Mericle Vice President Bob Besecker coordinated the real estate transaction. C3i was represented by Alex Jinishian from Colliers International’s New York City Office and John Susanin from Colliers’ Philadelphia office.
Besecker said C3i becomes CenterPoint’s 38th tenant and joins Maximus and Greiner Packaging International, which recently announced they had signed leases with Mericle. When these three companies are fully staffed, there will be 4,500 people working in CenterPoint according to Besecker.
Besecker said C3i, Maximus, and Greiner Packaging International all leased space in buildings Mericle had constructed on speculation on ReadyToGo!™ sites. “It is critical that we have a wide variety of space available when companies are considering bringing their jobs to Northeastern Pennsylvania,” he said.
Besecker said Mericle hopes to build several additional speculative buildings in CenterPoint in 2014.
For more information about Mericle and its ReadyToGo!™ program, click here.
Founded by Robert K. Mericle, Mericle Construction Inc. self-performs virtually all aspects of development and construction, using its own in-house personnel, Mericle Construction is better able to control costs and fast track delivery schedules to meet its clients’ needs. It fashions itself as a throwback to the “master builder” of old when experienced craftsmen self-performed all aspects of the construction process.