News Article

Red Ventures To Create 1,000 Jobs In Lancaster County

October 7, 2009

Sales and marketing firm Red Ventures is crossing the border into South Carolina with plans for a 1,000-job campus in Lancaster County, lured by several financial incentives that include property-tax discounts.

In November, the company will move across the state line to 521 Corporate Center, a 67-acre business park three miles south of Ballantyne. It will occupy a 57,000-square-foot building and also is purchasing seven adjacent acres for a planned expansion into what’s billed as a Silicon Valley-style corporate campus featuring a cafeteria and fitness center.

The Charlotte company employs 250 workers at its current headquarters on Lancaster Highway — which also is near Ballantyne on the N.C. side — and 400 more across the country. Next week, Red Ventures will host a job fair to hire 100 more locally based employees. For job fair details go to redventures.com.

Local and state economic developers in Lancaster County and South Carolina peg the company’s investment at more than $20 million. The move includes 18 years of property taxes discounted by 50 percent, with Red Ventures inheriting a 20-year deal originally signed by mortgage firm Senderra Funding two years ago. Lancaster County, through the S.C. Department of Commerce, will also provide a $250,000 grant for infrastructure around the new Red Ventures headquarters. Finally, the company will receive job-development credits based on its ability to deliver on the new jobs promised, says Mark Brodsky, the company's chief financial officer.

"It should be a great thing for helping us find great talent," says Dan Feldstein, Red Ventures partner. "Having people all together in a great environment is a tremendous benefit."

Started in 2000, Red Ventures is a high-tech marketing firm that works on behalf of companies such as ADT Security and DirecTV to land subscribers and sales. The company has become a fixture on the Inc. 500 list in recent years. In 2009, Red Ventures anticipates a 20 percent increase in sales. Last year, Red Ventures generated $120 million in revenue.

Moves across the state line from Charlotte have been sparse of late. But five years ago and before, Mergent Inc., HSBC Mortgage Services Inc., CitiFinancial and Well Fargo Home Mortgage moved large operations to the border S.C. counties from Charlotte.

Brodsky, the chief financial officer, led the site search for Red Ventures. The company considered sites in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Lancaster County "was more aggressive in courting us," he says. Company officials say they plan to collaborate with state and county government on job-skills programs with the intent of hiring some local workers. Lancaster County’s unemployment rate has hovered between 18 and 19 percent in recent months, or nearly double the national average.

Red Ventures pledged to reach 1,000 employees in Lancaster County within the next five years. Jobs will pay $40,000 to $60,000 in most cases, the company says. The current 20,000-square-foot headquarters in Charlotte will be subleased at the end of the year, Brodsky says. Another 5,000 square feet the company occupies at Ballantyne Corporate Park is a sublease that expires early next year.

Prior to the Red Ventures decision, the most recent defectors from Mecklenburg County to South Carolina were Inspirational Networks Inc. and Continental Tire North America Inc.

A study financed by the Charlotte Regional Partnership in 2006 found there was little reason for concern about companies moving south. The study found the numbers of employees moving represented only a small percentage of the total Charlotte work force.

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