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Hewlett-Packard of Palo Alto, Calif., announced Thursday that it would open a customer service and technical support center in Conway that will employ 1,200.
The announcement was made before a packed house at the University of Central Arkansas' Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall. Gov. Mike Beebe said the jobs Hewlett-Packard will bring are what the state will need to compete.
These are "the kind of jobs that represent increased earning capacity and wages for the needs and demands of families in today's society. It represents all those obvious tangible monetary benefits and all the surrounding corollary expansions that go along with it. It represents 1,200 jobs that - frankly - will start in the low $40,000s, and with many being much higher paying at the start than that," Beebe said.
Hewlett-Packard will open its 150,000-SF, $28 million facility at the Meadows Office & Technology Park in southern Conway, owned by the Conway Development Corp. The first hires will begin working in late 2009, and the company will staff the facility over a four-year period. The announcement was made simultaneously with another announcement that Hewlett-Packard will open a comparable center in Rio Rancho, N.M.
Hewlett-Packard will receive several economic incentives for locating in Conway. Beebe said the state is providing $10 million from the Governor's Quick Action Closing Fund for infrastructure, and the Conway Development Corp....