City’s work force draw for Bean’s Baldacci applauds Bangor call center

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BANGOR – For months, the fact that Bangor was in the running to land L.L. Bean’s latest customer service center was perhaps the best-kept secret in town.

That all changed on Thursday, when company officials came to the Queen City to formally unveil plans to locate its next call center in a building near Bangor International Airport. Irving Oil Corp. formerly occupied the building at Godfrey Boulevard and Maine Avenue.

Founded in 1912 and headquartered in Freeport, L.L. Bean is known around the world for its durable, high-quality sporting goods and casual clothing and footwear, among other things.

In honor of the occasion, City Council Chairman Frank Farrington wore the Bean boots his father bought him in the fall of 1948, when Farrington was a high school student living in Augusta.

“Twenty years ago, I had the soles redone,” Farrington said during Thursday’s news conference. He said he figured that if he had the soles redone one more time, he could get at least another 10 or 15 years of wear out of them.

“The City Council and citizens of Bangor are thrilled to welcome L.L. Bean to our city,” Farrington said during Thursday’s rollout of the project.

“No company exemplifies Maine values better than L.L. Bean,” Farrington said. “For 93 years, its name has stood for quality, reliability and expertise. Bangor and L.L. Bean are a perfect match. L.L. Bean is creating good full-time and seasonal jobs in Bangor. In turn, Bangor’s large and well-qualified labor force will do a great job for L.L. Bean.”

Chief Executive Officer Chris McCormick said Thursday that Bean plans to have the Bangor center up and running by August.

At least 100 full-time workers will be brought on board for starters, but the company plans ultimately to employ 600 to 800 workers during its peak season, September through February, McCormick said. Work on the building will begin in May, and hiring will begin in early summer, probably June or July, he said.

For L.L. Bean, the decision to develop a call center in Bangor boiled down to labor availability, though it didn’t hurt that Bangor also could bring to the bargaining table an existing building handy to the airport and Interstate 95.

“Our review of the labor market areas in Maine led us to Bangor for its work force capacity and ability to meet both our year-round and peak-season hiring needs,” McCormick said during a news conference at City Hall.

According to McCormick, more than 100 communities, including some in Massachusetts, vied for the chance to host the call center, Bean’s fourth year-round call center in Maine.

The company remains committed to Maine and its workers, the “ambassadors of L.L. Bean and the keepers of the brand,” the company official said.

He said that he “would never even consider” outsourcing the company’s call center to another state or country. “They’re just so much a part of our branding.”

The 30,000-square-foot building that Bean will occupy housed Irving Oil’s administrative support services operations until last year, when the corporation announced plans to shut down the Bangor operation.

The plan is for BIA to buy the building and lease it and the land to Bean.

The deal still is subject to City Council approval, slated to occur during its meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday. But based on the enthusiastic welcome the company received Thursday, that won’t be much of an issue.

The internationally known outfitter’s decision to set up shop here was hailed as some of the best economic development news the city has seen in a while.

“As L.L. Bean goes, so goes Maine,” Gov. John Baldacci, a Bangor native and former city councilor, said, adding that Maine is perhaps best known for “lobster, lighthouses and L.L. Bean. Now we get to add Bangor to that flagstaff.”

“This is a good shot in the arm for the entire state,” Baldacci said, applauding the company’s commitment to Maine.

City Manager Edward Barrett said he also was looking forward to L.L. Bean’s presence here.

“A great Maine company is coming to a great Maine city,” he said. “Obviously, we’re very pleased that a company like L.L. Bean, with its historic Maine roots and reputation for quality [products], is coming into our labor market.”

Some factors that helped Bangor land the project, Barrett said, were the city’s good working relationship and credibility with Joseph Boulos and George Campbell, who served as Bean’s contract site selector for the project. The city worked with Boulos’ company in the mid-1990s to transform the former Bangor Gas Works on Main Street, at one time a federal Superfund site, into the property that now houses Shaw’s Supermarket.

Spearheading the project on the city’s side were Rod McKay, community and economic development director, and Stephen Bolduc, a city economic development officer and head of BanAir Corp., the nonprofit group that manages city-owned property at or near BIA.

Barrett also said that Irving deserved some credit for its cooperation with the project.

Councilor Dan Tremble, chairman of the council’s business and economic development committee, said that between Bean’s project and Penn National Gaming Inc.’s racino, roughly 1,000 jobs were headed for Bangor.

“This will be good for the entire region,” he said, noting that residents of surrounding communities likely also would work at the facilities.

The company originally had a site picked out for a new 50,000-square-foot call center in Waterville’s FirstPark business park. T-Mobile USA Inc., however, announced in December plans to build a call center employing up to 700 workers in the same park.

Fears that there could be a shortage of quality workers prompted the Freeport-based outdoor outfitter to scrap that plan and look elsewhere.