This AT&T call center in Fife is similar to what Nextel will build in East Bremerton. With an expected 500 employees, on the day it opens it will be one of Kitsap’s top five largest private sector employers.

   After literally years of work, The Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council (KREDC) has reeled in the big fish it’s been trolling for, as well as hooked another.
   Nextel Communications Inc., one of the world’s largest wireless networking companies, recently announced that it has selected a site in East Bremerton for a sprawling new call center that will employ up to 500 people. On the day it opens, it will be one of Kitsap’s top five private employers.
   The news came on the heels of another announcement that American Financial Solutions (AFS), a Seattle-based non-profit credit-counseling agency, had leased the former Montgomery Ward building at 263 Fourth St. in downtown Bremerton as the site for a new call center facility. The building is owned by the Bremer Trust and was converted from retail to office space about 11 years ago. It sits across the street from the Roxy Theater and adjacent to The Doctor Clinic’s administrative office.
   AFS will initially hire 22 to 25 local employees, and over the next four years has plans to increase its local staff to 100 people. It will operate 24 hours a day and handle calls from its current client list of 9,000 people nationwide, communicating with them via telephone or the Internet.
   Although Nextel’s facility still has to be built, AFS will begin hiring this month and plans to open for business in April.
   The KREDC has been working on landing a call center for the past several years. The agency has been close on several, which put Kitsap on the radar screen of a number of companies in that business, but up until now hasn’t been able to pull the trigger on getting one here. Just last month, USA networks had narrowed its search for a location to Kitsap and a site in Florida which it eventually selected.
   KREDC executive director Zolton Szigethy was quick to praise the hard work of business recruitment director Kevin Dwyer for the successful efforts. Dwyer originally came up with the concept of trying to attract the call center industry here several years ago and has worked relentlessly since then to land one.
   Dwyer also ramrods the KREDC’s telecom committee, an ad hoc group of local communication and internet industry professionals, business and government leaders and the media, which is tasked with setting the stage for and implementing infrastructure improvements needed to attract high-tech companies here.
   Nextel executives, said the KREDC played a key role over the past two years in convincing the company to locate in Kitsap County. According to Al Shotwell, Nextel’s vice president for real estate, the firm conducted a regionwide labor study and toured hundreds of sites before selecting Kitsap County. He said the company was sold on the area by its talented labor pool which includes military spouses, military retirees and community college graduates.
   Shotwell also said the KREDC provided “invaluable” help during that time, validating the available labor pool, previewing potential building sites with company representatives and working with local government officials so that the center can be built quickly.
   Kevin Hanna, CFO of AFS, also credited the KREDC for the strong role it played in his company’s decision to move its operations to Bremerton. Dwyer began working with AFS last fall. He introduced CEO Cuba Craig and Hannah to Bremerton Mayor Lynn Horton and toured a number of potential properties with them before the firm settled on the old Montgomery Ward building.
   Nextel’s 60,000-square-foot facility will sit on a 6.9-acre site just south of the Wal-Mart store at the intersection of McWilliams Road and Highway 303. Construction is expected to begin shortly with the center scheduled to open Aug. 1.
   Nextel purchased the land from developer Paul Pazooki, who noted that the location had previously been approved as a building site which shortened the permitting time considerably.
   Pazooki declined to say what Nextel paid for the property, but said he sold low, believing the company’s presence will increase the value of two smaller adjacent parcels he owns.
   The facility will be an inbound call center and employees will handle incoming customer service calls from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Northern California. Nearly all Nextel employees will be hired locally, with entry-level wages pegged at about $9.50 to $10 an hour. Experienced workers will start at a higher wage.
Reston, Virginia-based Nextel has more than 13,000 employees worldwide and serves 98 of the top 100 markets in the United States.
   AFS is a division of the North Seattle Community College Foundation. It helps people with debt problems by counseling them, restructuring and consolidating their unsecured debt, and working with financial institutions and other lenders to resolve their problems.
   The typical AFS client has five credit cards and is $20,000 in debt not including monthly mortgage and car payments. The firm makes its money from creditors that pay in a percentage of the money AFS recovers from debtors. That percentage, which is far lower than typical rates charged by collection agencies, is considered a “fair share” donation by the lenders.
   Income AFS receives over and above expenses goes into a scholarship fund at North Seattle Community College to benefit disadvantaged students.