WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — A sales and marketing agency is moving in to the Wyoming building that used to house Rogers Department Store and Klingman’s Furniture, planning to add about 100 jobs there.
Advantage Sales & Marketing is investing $4.3 million to consolidate operations from four metro Grand Rapids locations to its new facility on 28th Street west of Clyde Park Avenue, the company and West Michigan economic development agency The Right Place, Inc. announced Wednesday.
West Michigan beat out Wisconsin, where Advantage Sales & Marketing also has offices, for the consolidated facility. As a result, the region is keeping some 300 jobs and adding another 100.
“We really had to make the case for the area and a lot of that had to do with our labor market,” Eric Icard, The Right Place’s senior business development manager, told 24 Hour News 8 Thursday. “And yes, although we do have a tight labor force and our unemployment rate is low here in West Michigan, one of the areas of focus for a company like Advantage Solutions is the availability of college students. And many people don’t realize, but we have close to 90,000 college students in the 13 counties we cover here as part of The Right Place’s geography.”
Icard said the 100 new jobs will be in financial services, customer service, marketing and merchandising.
Advantage was awarded a $550,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Agency’s Michigan Business Development Program for the consolidation effort.==Watch 24 Hour News 8’s full interview with Icard above.==