A Texas-based firm that promises a thousand jobs in the Sioux City area announced on Thursday that it’s already hiring. “Stream” will move into a building that’s been empty since Verizon bought M-C-I and closed its call center last year in Sergeant Bluff.

Siouxland Chamber President Debbie Durham says when she heard the old call center would be vacant, she swung into action to find a similar business that could use it as a “plug-and-play” center ready to start up again. She contacted every lead she’d worked with for the last two years in the call-center industry, and every site-selector they’d met, and she says within one week there were three people interested in the center.

Stream has 26 centers around the world and 12-thousand people on the payroll according to managers who appeared at Thursday’s announcement. It’s described as a “global contract center outsourcer” which provides technical support and customer service for clients that include major technological companies. A Stream official says they plan to hire aggressively and sign on 500 people by the end of December, another 500 workers early next year.

Radio Iowa