Cingular Wireless Announcement
I am excited to welcome Cingular Wireless to Davenport and the Quad Cities. The company plans to build a call center in Davenport, creating just over 500 jobs. Cingular is the largest wireless company in the USA and has just fewer than 40 call centers in the country. The Davenport facility will serve "Western states." Dan Kramer, of Cingular, made the announcement today.
The day Cingular opens its' doors it will become one of the QCA's top-20 largest employers. The 74,000-sq. ft. facility will be a $19-million construction project. The project ads $13.5-million to the tax base and an $11-million payroll.
The incentives proposed are in line with similar projects in other cities. I was encouraged to see Davenport emerge from a group of others as Cingular's top choice. It is very difficult to compete for these economic development projects and I was pleased to see some proactive efforts by Thom Hart, the city staff, and administration. Cities cannot sit on the sidelines and hope opportunities will come our way, we need to "close deals" when opportunities arise. I was pleased to see the TIF package/resolution pass on a unanimous vote by our council tonight.
Here's the press release from this afternoon: click here.
posted by Ian Frink @ 9:51 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Ian
On another blog there are comments about a desire to have the city budget sessions taped for replay on the city public channel. We think it is a good idea. What are your thoughts and is this something you could help us achieve?
Avil Hoffman
Anon. 4:24,
I'm happy to give it consideration. I can see pros and cons to this situation. I think it is great to have open communication and exchanges with the citizens, the only down side I can see is the difficulty one might have in following the process of the council's work sessions.
I would hate to see something misinterpreted. For example, the council receives hundreds of supporting pages of information, without the ability to reference these materials (i.e. a viewer at home) one might make a false assumption or become confused.
Maybe a compromise might be to television a presentation from finance with some Q/A from council members or citizens.
Thanks for the post, Ian
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