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BY PAT FERRIER PatFerrier@coloradoan.com |
The largest car rental company in the country will open a new insurance claims office in Fort Collins in May, creating 100 new full-time jobs.
Enterprise, owner of Enterprise, National and Alamo rental car companies, plans to announce today the opening of a claims processing office at 4800 Wheaton Drive to handle property and automobile damage claims for all three brands in the Western United States and Hawaii.
Collectively, Enterprise, Alamo and National have a worldwide network of more than 8,000 neighborhood and airport car rental locations.
The new office is the culmination of more than 18 months of work by the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp., a key reason Enterprise chose Fort Collins for its office."Enterprise could have put their claims center anywhere they wanted, and we are grateful they chose Fort Collins," said Maury Dobbie, NCEDC president and CEO.
Enterprise chose Fort Collins from among 20 other metro areas, "but NCEDC really helped us," Enterprise spokeswoman Christy Conrad said.
Fort Collins, with the presence of CSU, local employee base and help received from NCEDC "made it an ideal choice," she said.
The new claims office will be one of three in the U.S., including Tulsa, Okla., and a soon-to-be announced location on the East Coast.
The jobs come at a time when the region is experiencing record unemployment.
From December 2007 through December 2008, the county shed 1,600 jobs, the biggest decline in its history.
The addition of Enterprise, Walmart Supercenter in Timnath opening in April and Embassy Suites in Loveland slated to open later in March will offset some of that decline with the addition of almost 750 jobs.
The company expects to employ 120 people in Fort Collins, 16 of whom will be transferred from within Enterprise. Positions will range from clerical help to billers and examiners, with average hourly wages from $12 to $18 an hour, Conrad said.
Regional economist Martin Shields estimated the 120 Enterprise employees will generate about $4.4 million in local spending, which translates to about $78,000 in sales tax revenue.
While the region has focused much of its efforts on creating clean energy jobs, Dobbie said "diversity is important to the economic survival" of Northern Colorado.
"Enterprise is not just any company, it’s going to be a strong corporate citizen," she said.