21st Century Chooses Lewisville for Texas Call Center

California auto insurer 21st Century Insurance plans to open a call center in Lewisville, Texas, that could introduce hundreds of new jobs over the next five years. The company said site construction and training is expected to begin in July, and the center is expected to operate fully by September 2004.

“We are excited about our growth plans and happy to call Lewisville our new Texas home,” said 21st Century President and CEO Bruce Marlow. “This is a tremendous opportunity for 21st Century to do what successful, growing companies do—establish more of a national footprint as we expand into other regions of the country.”

The Texas call center will enable 21st Century to more easily support its recent expansion into Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. 21st Century currently operates two call centers in Southern California, and by adding a third call center in the Central Time Zone, the insurer can more seamlessly provide 24-hour, 7-days-a-week service to its customers.
“At 21st Century, we pride ourselves on offering customers the best combination of coverage, price and service,” Marlow added. “And, of the locations we considered, we found the metro Dallas area offers the best combination of an experienced, qualified labor force, business friendly environment and reasonable real estate costs.”

The Metroplex area is also home to a large multilingual and computer-literate workforce, attributes also important to 21st Century, a leader in online capabilities and serving the Latino community. 21st is the only major auto insurer with a fully functional Spanish Web site where customers can get a quote, purchase a policy, report a claim and meet all auto insurance needs.

The 136,000-square-foot call center, which will be located at 1945 Lakepointe Drive, will employ 150 or more customer service representatives in the first six to 12 months.

21st Century worked closely with the City of Lewisville, Denton County Economic Development, the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, the North Central Texas College and Governor Rick Perry’s office to make the transaction a reality.

“The Greater Dallas Chamber is thrilled with 21st Century’s decision to open a large call center in Lewisville,” said Bob Chereck, Dallas president, Wells Fargo Bank and chairman of the economic development committee for the Greater Dallas Chamber. “21st Century’s move confirms that our region is a good place to do business!”

“The Chamber knows that bringing in new jobs, like those being generated by 21st Century, is the fuel that powers DFW’s economic engine,” said Norm Bagwell, president, Bank One Dallas and chairman of the Greater Dallas Chamber.

“We are thrilled to welcome 21st Century Insurance to Lewisville,” said Zane Miller, Economic Development Director. “We look forward to a long relationship with this outstanding company.”

The insurer has recently negotiated a 12-year lease with Vantage Development, which owns the site. Studley Real Estate represented 21st Century Insurance in the transaction.

Founded in 1958, 21st Century Insurance Group provides personal automobile insurance to customers in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.