ALLENTOWN – When BB&T Corp. announced in May it was cutting 87 mostly administrative jobs at its Two City Center offices, the former headquarters of Allentown’s National Penn Bancshares Inc., a spokesman said the bank did not expect to make any additional announcements about more cuts.
The bank also did not volunteer anything about new jobs, either.
Until now.
BB&T regional President Dave Kennedy said Friday he hopes to recoup those 87 jobs by year’s end.
“There is no question we lost a significant number of jobs, and we believe we are trying to restore many of those jobs,” Kennedy said during an interview with The Morning Call.
Kennedy said the bank has added 30 employees since June to its call center, doubling the number of workers. He also said there are plans to conduct a “major expansion” of the call center during the next two years. Call center employees answer customer questions and can introduce callers to the bank’s products and services, he said.
BB&T also plans to open a “credit hub” on another floor of Two City Center, where workers would process and fulfill loans, Kennedy said. He said that could add dozens more jobs. Some of the positions in both the call center and credit hub pay comparable or above what the former employees were earning, he said.
Kennedy said the bank would know the specific number of recovered positions around November.
“Much of it is still happening,” he said.
While bank officials have said they would retain the Center City Allentown offices, they had not released details of whether they would keep all five floors they rent out of the 11-story building at 645 Hamilton St.
Kennedy said Scott Fainor, BB&T group executive and former National Penn CEO, had to convince North Carolina-based BB&T leaders that it made sense to continue to lease the entire space, in part because of the benefits of the city Neighborhood Improvement Zone. Developers in the NIZ can tap their tenants’ state and local non-property tax payments, including the income tax withheld from employee paychecks, to help pay their construction loans. That allows those developers to offer tenants reduced rents, and entices employers to fill their spaces.
In addition, the bank has a 20-year lease with two renewal options for a total of nine years and 11 months at Two City Center.
BB&T, Kennedy said, recognizes the Lehigh Valley as a vibrant area.
“There are some financial reasons to stay in the building, but the other good news is the workforce potential is good around here, with quality people,” he said. “It’s a testament to the Lehigh Valley because there are a lot of candidates. There are a lot of people applying and a lot of bilinguals. There are a lot of positives to it.”
Local leaders used words like “amazing” and “fantastic” when told about the bank’s plans.
“It was just three months ago that I was asked to comment on job losses at the same location,” Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski said. “I am more hopeful that BB&T is realizing that we have a great workforce in the city and that in the long run they will seek to bring even more operations and jobs to Allentown.”
Lehigh Valley activist Alan Jennings, who deals with banks on issues such as community reinvestment, said the news on more jobs when BB&T had announced $65 million in merger cuts and plans to close branches is a credit to Fainor’s “tenacity.”
“For [Fainor] to have found a way to have made the business argument, I find it a pretty remarkable feat,” said Jennings, executive director of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, which ensures that low-income residents have access to banks and credit under the federal Community Reinvestment Act.
Kennedy, a Lehigh Valley banking veteran, became northern Pennsylvania region president April 1, which was the completion date of the $1.6 billion merger. He is one of 26 regional presidents in BB&T’s 15-state territory.
The 87 jobs that were cut in Allentown were part of a total of 241 back-office positions North Carolina-based BB&T chopped in the Lehigh Valley and Berks County.
“Allentown gained a lot of employees initially with us and has lost some,” Kennedy said, “but now you’re going to see this coming back.”
