Induced by a $20 million investment from the state of Texas, Countrywide Financial has agreed to purchase a property in a Dallas suburb — and in the process, create thousands of jobs within the state during the next several years.
At a press conference Tuesday, it was announced Countrywide will expand into Richardson, Texas, with the purchase of a 500,000 square-foot, three-building complex. The deal is expected to close next month, and Countrywide expects to immediately start filling the 2,500 job additions it plans over the next two years.
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Accompanying Countrywide’s CEO and cofounder Angelo Mozilo at the conference were Texas Governor Rick Perry and several other government officials. Once the buildings reach full capacity, the Calabasas, Calif.-based lender said it will do additional negotiating in Richardson and other areas of the state to fulfill its commitment with the state to create 7,500 jobs in Texas by 2011. Governor Perry said the state of Texas will invest $20 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund to help Countrywide bring in the 7,500 jobs over the next six years — “the largest job creation announcement in the United States since the year 2000.” Mozilo pointed out that the lender is focusing its expansions outside of California and that due to Texas’ great business climate, it “is far and away the best state to do business in.” Countrywide chose to expand first in Richardson because the buildings, mostly unoccupied, are “sitting there naked and we’re growing so fast, we needed space immediately,” company spokesman Rick Simon told MortgageDaily.com. |
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Countrywide announced it was named the largest mortgage lender and servicer in the United States during the third quarter — for which it reported production of $92 billion and a servicing portfolio of $786 billion.
“Our plans are to continue to grow,” Mozilo said.
“To me this is the topping on the cake: the fact that we have made the decision to use Texas as our springboard for the future expansion of Countrywide over this decade and the next decade,” he added.
While the lender currently has a 15 percent market share — making about one out of every six mortgage loans, by 2008, it expects to have a market share of 30 percent, Mozilo said. By that time it expects to increase its employee total of 42,000 to 80,000.
Mozilo told MortgageDaily.com that apart from expanded market share, the lender’s production will be strongly driven by multicultural markets.
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The new Texas jobs will cover all aspects of mortgages, including IT, loan processing, call center, title and appraisal, the executive said. The lender currently has a workforce of 6,000 in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex within its central facilities in Plano and Fort Worth, Simon said. Including branch workforce, the number amounts to more than 7,000 statewide across 1.35 million square feet, which makes it the company’s second largest state presence. The upcoming purchase will almost be equal to Countrywide’s presence in California, where it occupies about two million square feet. Around the time it closes the deal in Richardson in January, Countrywide will start the phase of adding at least 1,200 employees to its facility in Fort Worth over the next two years. Currently, 700 employees work in that location, but when remodeling is done next month, the company will start moving in new staff to fill the building’s capacity of 1,900, Simon said. |
