JP Morgan to close downtown office - Baltimore Business Journal:

xeconatyxex.blogspot.com
The JP Morgan cented did not meet job-growth targets and will have to returnm upto $500,000 to the according to officials with the Baltimorwe Development Corp., the city's economic development arm. "I'mj angry about it," said BDC president M. J. Brodie. Brodie said he got a call a couplse of weeks ago from a JP Morgan official who told him the facilityt was slated to Thedecision "is not my view of the way corporatr America should operate," Brodie said, given the effort city officialw made on the company's behalf.
The centerf handles payments for companies that outsource processing of paymentss toJP Morgan, said company spokesman Chris With the rise of check-imaging technology, the volume of work coming into that division fell last year, and JP Morgajn needed to consolidate to cut Spencer said. The divisionn has sites in Baltimore, Phoenixd and Louisville, Ky. "Baltimore was the newestg site with the least volume of work and theleastg headcount," Spencer said, stressinbg that the closure was "not performance related." A closinv date for the center hasn't been set.
JP Morgamn will need time to notify its commercial customersz that payments must be sent elsewherdefor processing, said estimating that the center will close around the end of Midwestern financial-services outfit Bank One -- which was acquiree by JP Morgan in 2004 -- was wooedc by at least 20 citied before deciding to locate to Fayette Street in Baltimore, Brodie said. A March 2000 presa release announcing the deal note sthat then-Gov. Parris Glendening met with Bank One officialsa in 1998 in hopes of attracting them tothe state. The Marylandx Economic Development Corp. bought land from the city and builra 40,000-square-foot facility and attachedf parking garage for Bank One.
The site preparationm and other assistance was worthabout $1 said Jeffrey Pillas, the BDC's chiecf financial officer. Under Bank One's originapl agreement with the BDC, the company was required to employu 150 at the site by the end of hiring more people over time to reach 400 employeesby 2004. But the companyg did not meet all of theemploymenyt goals. Its late-2002 deadline to employ 250 people was extendeeto mid-2003 and then to mid-2005, Pillas said. As with many companieds the city gives Bank One was required to pay the city moneyg if it failed to create thepromisesd jobs.
The 2005 deadline for creating 400 jobs requires JP Morgan to maintain those jobsthrough 2007, so any repayment for not creatintg the jobs would be due this year, Pillas said. The city and Bank One agree d that defaulting on the job goals could result in a penalty of up to Pillas said. He said it is not yet clear how much JP Morgab will haveto repay. JP Morganj will return any incentives it is no longer entitledc toand "will work with economic development officials," said company spokesman Employees of the Baltimore center can pursuse relocating to other JP Morgan sites, Spencedr said.
Those who do not relocate will receiv e severance in an amount that correspondsx to their time with the Employees who have been with JP Morganm for two years or less getfour severance, and the amount increases from JP Morgan notified the state of the cominf layoffs last month. Both the state and the city have begun meeting with affectexd employees to offerthem job-hunting help, officials said. JP Morgan Chase has $1.4 trillionb in assets and operatews in more than 50 Its services range from investment banking to privatd equity and consumer The companyreported fourth-quarter earnings of $4.5 billion, compared with $2.7 billion a year earlier.