Comcast Corp. has leased a 50,000-square-foot portion of an office building in Spokane Valley that will serve as the interim site for a planned major new call center here.

The Philadelphia-based cable company announced last month that it had selected Spokane as one of three communities in the western U.S. at which it will develop new customer-support centers.

Walter Neary, Comcast’s public relations director, says the temporary site will be at 2818 N. Sullivan.

“We’ve signed a one-year lease, and by the end of that we hope to be in our permanent home,” Neary says. Comcast is still exploring where to develop a permanent call center, he says.

Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor, and OAC Services Inc. is the project manager overseeing the needed renovations to the space. Comcast plans to move new hires into the building for training in mid- to late July, Neary says.

“Our timetable is to have new call-center staff being able to handle their first calls by mid- to late August,” Neary says.

Spokane County Assessor’s records show Northwest Health Systems, Inc. and Valley Youth Soccer as the only other tenants of the building at 2818 N. Sullivan, which previously housed Itron Inc., which is now based in Liberty Lake.

Neary says the company expects to have at least 300 employees in the temporary building before moving to a permanent location next year. Comcast officials said last month the company expects to bring 675 new jobs to the Spokane area for positions in management, human resources, training, and customer care. The company eventually plans to develop an 80,000-square-foot facility here to house employees.

“A call center is really like a small town,” Neary says. “We’re striving to have a professional, family-like culture.”

Comcast estimates that the call center will have an economic impact of $40 million throughout the Spokane area. The cable company chose Tucson, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M., for the other call-center locations in the western U.S.

The new customer-service centers are part of a larger, multiyear plan that Comcast announced for a “customer experience transformation.” The company says it will add a total of 5,500 jobs over the next few years and has set a goal of always being on time for customer appointments by the third quarter of this year.

In preparation for the new call center, the company will be hosting a meet-and-greet next Tuesday at its field offices at 1717 E. Buckeye from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Company representatives are inviting potential job candidates.

Prospective candidates will be able to speak to current Comcast employees and learn more about a possible career in media and technology. 

Comcast is currently looking to hire customer service account representatives in its sales and retention departments. Those departments are also actively soliciting applications for sales and retention managers and supervisors.