HispanicBusiness

A major call center is opening in the Sacramento area next month, an economic development boost that could bring around 500 jobs by year's end.

The employer, Advanced Call Center Technologies LLC, said it could eventually hire up to 2,000 Sacramentans.

Today's announcement represents one of the biggest boosts to the beleaguered Sacramento job market since the start of the recession in 2007.

The company will open in the old Price Club warehouse on Watt Avenue, an 87,000 square foot facility north of Interstate 80, sometime in July.

The Sacramento location beat out four other cities being considered by Advanced -- Kansas City, Kan.; Tallahassee, Fla.; Fond du Lac, Wis.; and Weldon Springs, Mo.

It's the company's second location in the area. Advanced employs nearly 200 workers at a Carmichael call center that opened two years ago.

"We really liked the area a lot, we like the employee base there," said Jimmy Griffiths, the company's chief financial officer.

He credited SACTO, the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization, for "putting the whole package together." The area has been designated an enterprise zone, providing tax credits as the company hires.

Shari Little, SACTO's vice president of business development, said the tax credits "were a game changer for them.

"Other states were offering them cash and land and buildings," she said. But the company was interested in deepening its relationship with the Sacramento area, she said.

Griffiths said the company's "training wage" will be around $9.50 an hour, and "it will go up from there."