Maximus Inc., a Reston, Virginia-based government contractor, intends to open a call center at One Imeson in North Jacksonville that could employ up to 200 people.
Lisa Miles, senior vice president of investor relations and corporate communications, said by email Wednesday that the job count will depend on the volume of calls.
She said the Jacksonville location will help Maximus continue its work to support the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid.
Miles said FSA is the largest provider of student financial aid in the nation, providing more than $150 billion in federal grants, loans and work-study funds each year to more than 15 million students paying for college or career school.
“A critical role of FSA is managing the outstanding federal student loan portfolio and securing repayment from federal student loan borrowers,” Miles said.
“FSA utilizes this contract to support student borrowers,” she said.
Miles said that under the contract, Maximus already provides a customer contact center to respond to inquiries from borrowers and third parties.
“Under the program we work hand-in-hand to support FSA in their mission of helping Americans who are struggling with their student loan debt,” she wrote.
Miles said Jacksonville was chosen because of its workforce.
“In researching locations, Jacksonville was a natural choice given the availability of qualified staff in the region,” Miles said.
State numbers show that office and administrative support occupations account for 104,000 jobs in the Jacksonville area, while business and financial operations provide another 40,000.
Those are two of the fastest-growing job categories in the area.
Maximus applied for a Certificate of Use for the project in One Imeson at 1 Imeson Park Blvd.
The city issued a permit May 24 for Dav-Lin Interior Contractors to build-out 29,153 square feet of space at a cost of $365,195. Gresham Smith and Partners is the architect.
For Jacksonville, Maximus posted 16 job titles online, dated two months to two weeks ago.
Maximus is leasing from GIV Imeson LLC. Owner Jason Isaacson confirmed the lease but referred questions about the specific functions to the company.
Isaacson said Maximus could move in between July 1 and Aug. 1.
“It’s a great company. It’s great for the building and it’s great for Jacksonville,” he said.
He said Maximus will lease office space that Body Central Corp. intended to rent. He declined to disclose the lease terms.
The job listings show Maximus will operate a call center and customer contact center for its Federal Services functions, one of its three areas of focus.
Job titles include senior call center manager, contact center manager and supervisor, operations support, workforce management specialist and supervisor, call center quality monitor, and four tiers of bilingual customer service representatives with at least 200 openings.
Customer service responsibilities include taking payment calls, processing credit bureau requests, taking calls for the Treasury Offset Program, answering questions from National Students Loan Data System borrowers, answering questions from borrowers with Wage and Social Security Benefit garnishments, and other functions.
The Treasury Offset Program collects delinquent debts owed to federal agencies and states, including past-due child support.
Build-out plans show 13 offices; conference, training, computer and break rooms; open spaces for workstations and collaboration; a waiting area; security and locker rooms; and a command center.
Maximus, a public company, describes itself as a leading operator of government health and human services programs in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
“We deliver business process solutions to improve the cost-effectiveness, efficiency and quality of government-sponsored benefit programs, such as Medicaid, Medicare, Health Insurance BC (British Columbia), as well as welfare-to-work and child support programs around the globe,” it says.
It employs more than 20,000 people worldwide and says it “focuses on building public-private partnerships with federal, provincial, state, county and municipal governments to deliver reliable, cost-effective solutions.”
It reports annual revenue of more than $2 billion.
Maximus was founded in 1975. Starting in 2006, it narrowed its focus on business process services primarily in the health services and the human services markets and divested or exited businesses that fell outside those two areas.
“Our subsequent growth was driven by the expansion of our health services business around the globe, new welfare-to-work contracts outside the United States and the growth of our business with the U.S. Federal Government. This growth has been both organic and through acquisitions,” it says in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Its annual report explains it is organized and managed based on the services it provides: health services, U.S. federal services and human services.
Health services generated 56 percent of total revenue in fiscal year 2017.
As of Sept. 30, it employed about 20,400 people, comprising 12,600 in health services, 2,700 in U.S. federal services, 4,600 in human services and 500 corporate administrative employees.
Maximus owns a 60,000-square-foot office building in Reston and it leases offices for operations, management and administrative functions in connection with the performance of its services.
As of Sept. 30, it leased 111 offices in the U.S. totaling 2.5 million square feet of space. It also leases about 1.1 million square feet outside the U.S.
It said lease terms vary from month-to-month to 10-year leases and generally are at market rates.
“In the event that a property is used for our services in the U.S., we typically negotiate clauses to allow termination of the lease if the service contract is terminated by our customer. Such clauses are not standard in foreign leases,” it says.
One Imeson Center is an almost 1.7 million-square-foot office-warehouse developed in 1974 as a Sears catalog distribution center.
The third-floor space leased by Maximus is part of the 400,000 square feet that Jacksonville-based Body Central intended to lease for warehouse and office uses.
The fashion retailer canceled those plans in 2014 and closed its stores in 2015.
One Imeson tenants include General Dynamics Information Technology and Venus Fashion Inc.