PRA Group officially cut the ribbon on a new office in Danville, Va., yesterday, although the company has stuck to its plan that will see a reduced number of employees who will be working in the new call center.
Originally announcing plans to hire 500 employees for the center, PRA Group will instead staff the call center with 300 new employees, which it will begin hiring in January, according to a published report. The reduced number of employees means the company will invest $11 million into the project, down from an original estimate of $15 million.
City and state officials had offered PRA Group nearly $6 million in incentives to open the new office, which was previously a call center for another company. The amount of incentives has been reduced to $4 million, according to the report.
The call center is about 60,000-square feet of office space.
Changes to state laws in Virginia made it more attractive for PRA to open a call center in its home state — it is based in Norfolk, Va. That law eliminated a double taxation on debt collection funds collected from other states. About half of PRA Group’s 5,000 employees work in Virginia, according to the report.
Kevin Stevenson, the president and chief executive of PRA Group, hinted that there could be more jobs coming to the Danville location, specifically developers and programmers for its in-house computer systems.
“This marks the start of a new journey between PRA and Danville,” PRA President and CEO Kevin Stevenson told local and state officials during the ceremony Monday, according to the report. “This building holds a lot of opportunity for the future.”
