Seligman Data Corp. to open center in South Portland

SOUTH PORTLAND – The technology and customer service division of one of the nation’s oldest mutual fund companies will open a customer service center in South Portland by year’s end.

Seligman Data Corp. of New York expects to initially employ about 100 people at the center, which will be located in the G.H. Bass Co. building. Company officials said the work force could double if the stock market climbs.

Seligman Data had narrowed its choices to Raleigh, N.C., and Greater Portland, said Joseph Wischerath, executive vice president of Maine & Co., a non-profit agency that had helped recruit Seligman.

Financial services is one of the industries Maine is interested in attracting, Wischerath said Wednesday.

Seligman Data is an arm of J. & W. Seligman & Co., which was formed in 1864. It invested heavily in railroads and helped finance the Panama Canal and the launching of public utilities.

In 1929 the company established Tri-Continental Corp., an investment firm on the New York Stock Exchange that now has more than 40 mutual funds.

The Maine work force will include customer service representatives, business analysts, technical workers and supervisors, said John H. Clark, president of Seligman Data.

The company has scheduled an open house next week to begin its search for workers. As many as 20 employees in New York have expressed an interest in transferring to Maine. The company was attracted to Maine for the ease of doing business in the region; the availability and skills of the labor force; the quality of life; and air service to New York, Clark said.

It was also drawn by an incentive package put together by the state, which includes an employment tax increment financing package that will return 30 percent of some employees’ tax payments to the company.