Call center with 200 jobs proposed in former offices

A for-profit social enterprise is proposing to bring 200 new jobs to Franklinton by creating a call center in former medical offices in the area of Mount Carmel West hospital.

The proposal will be presented Monday at a meeting of the Ohio Controlling Board as part of a request for funding.

The state's Development Services Agency will ask that the controlling board loan $7.6 million to help Fortuity Holding LLC buy, renovate and expand the real estate at 750 Mount Carmel Mall.

The development would create 200 "living-wage callcenter jobs," according to the proposal.

"We literally can walk with somebody from pretty close to minimum wage skills all the way to $25-an-hour permanent job with benefits," said Fred Brothers, the investor and entrepreneur who founded Fortuity Holding, the real-estate holding company for Fortuity Calling. "For a lot of them, this would be best opportunity they've had."

The proposal would bring jobs to Franklinton and the Hilltop, areas that will be more in need than ever after the Mount Carmel West hospital closes next year.

Mount Carmel Health System is in the midst of a $711 million project that involves its west, east and Grove City campuses. While the hospital in Franklinton will close and move to a new 210-bed facility in Grove City, the campus will retain an emergency department and outpatient care and expand its College of Nursing and Healthy Living Center.

"This first one is very much a standalone," Brothers said, referring to the proposed call center.

"We may have here a model we can prove out that lets us bring good, sustainable, career-path jobs back into our inner cities. If this model proves to be effective, our hope is we can launch a couple other locations in Columbus and maybe in other cities around the state."

In addition to the loan, the call center would be financed with an additional $5.4 million from several sources, including proceeds from a tax credit from Capital One and equity from the developer.