T-Mobile plans to add 125 employees in Springfield

Photo courtesy Google Maps

The owner of T-Mobile’s local call center purchases adjacent property for more parking.

The T-Mobile USA Inc. (Nasdaq: TMUS) call center in Airport Plaza is in hiring mode, bringing total employment near 1,000 in Springfield.

“We’re planning to hire 125 more T-Mobile employees at our Springfield call center to accommodate the rapid growth of our customer team,” said Charlene Lee, director of business planning for T-Mobile, via email. “We already have the space for them in the building, and we plan to start hiring in early 2019.”

The telecommunications company already employs roughly 850 at the national call center on the northwest side, 2645 N. Airport Plaza Ave.

“In Springfield, our employees are helping customers mainly located in Minneapolis, Cleveland, Chicago and Kansas City,” Lee said. “Since each call center supports specific markets, our hiring reflects business realities in those markets. In other words, we’re growing like gangbusters in Minneapolis, Cleveland, Chicago and Kansas City and need more people here in Springfield to support all of those new customers.”

T-Mobile is making room outside of the Springfield building with a parking lot expansion through a land purchase and new real estate lease.

For a 200-space parking lot expansion, Jim and Sylvia Jura in August sold adjacent property for $140,000 to TMC11 Springfield MO LLC, a subsidiary of Gladstone Commercial Corp. (Nasdaq: GOOD). McLean, Virginia-based Gladstone is leasing the property to T-Mobile for undisclosed terms, said Buzz Cooper, senior managing director for Gladstone Commercial

The parking lot is scheduled for completion by mid-November, said Perry Finney, senior asset manager for Gladstone.

Gladstone purchased the 78,000-square-foot call center in 2011 for $16 million from an unnamed seller, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The company’s portfolio comprises 98 properties in 24 states covering roughly 11.4 million square feet, according to a news release.

The 4.5-acre parcel sold by the Juras at 3320 W. Farm Road 112 sits northeast of the T-Mobile building, along Interstate 44. The 2018 taxable appraised value of the land is $69,700, according to Greene County assessor records.