Financial firm bringing 170 jobs
LSI to locate in Downtown ABQ office building
Chicago-based financial services firm Lending Solutions Inc., known throughout the industry as LSI, announced Tuesday it is opening a new office in Downtown Albuquerque and will create 170 jobs over the next three years.
LSI provides customer service, loan services and collection activities for credit unions, banks and other U.S. financial institutions. Lee Kolquist, the company’s CEO, said most of the new jobs will be customer service positions, with a starting wage of $14 to $15 an hour and incentives in the range of $400 to $500 a month.
“It’s not a call center,” Kolquist said. “These are financial service agents with extensive training. It’s quite a commitment.”
Kolquist said many employees begin as customer service agents
then move on to process loan applications, and eventually become loan underwriters. The company is hiring and hopes to have 20 new employees by the time it moves into its new office space in June or July, he said.
LSI has leased 18,000 square feet on the seventh floor of the Century Plaza building, 400 Tijeras NW, a space formerly occupied by Molina Healthcare of New Mexico.
At a news conference Tuesday, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller called LSI “a very special company” that believes in “patient capital and patient investment” over a long period of time.
LSI Executive Vice President Dave Brooke told the audience he was impressed that city, county and state officials had worked together to bring the company to New Mexico. He also thanked former Gov. Susana Martinez, who was not present at the event, for visiting the company’s headquarters in 2017.
“She stopped by the office and said, ‘Why haven’t you decided on Albuquerque yet?’ ” Brooke said.
While several local and out-of-state companies have expanded to Downtown in recent months — TaskUs, Carenet Healthcare Services and RS21 among them — the LSI announcement is one of the few not tied to Local Economic Development Act money from the city or state.
Gary Tonjes, president of Albuquerque Economic Development, said that though the company may pursue funding through the Job Training Incentive Program, it turned down a proposal that would have given it access to LEDA incentives. Tonjes declined to elaborate on the specifics of the proposal but said other companies have declined LEDA in the past because they don’t want the rigidity that comes with clawback provisions, don’t want the scrutiny associated with accepting public money or because the company is planning on doing the project regardless and doesn’t feel the incentives are necessary.
“(LSI) told us, ‘We appreciate it, but we told you when we come into the market we want to be different, we want to stand out,’ ” Tonjes said. “… They have a really interesting philosophy and mentality.”
Brooke told the Journal the company thought LEDA money “should be saved for somebody else.” He said LSI considered several other sites in addition to Albuquerque, including San Antonio and at least one location in Indiana.
The project had an unusually long gestation period for AED, according to Tonjes, who said the organization’s first contact with LSI was in November 2015. Tonjes said a more typical timeline is six months to two years.
Kolquist said LSI chose Albuquerque in part because the company is trying to increase the percentage of its bilingual workforce from 16 percent to 20 percent or more. He also cited Albuquerque’s university and community college system, and the convenience the Mountain time zone will create for the company’s West Coast clients. Kolquist said LSI will be transferring between 10 and 15 of its Illinois-based employees to Albuquerque and that the project represents a significant step for the company.
“This is a big deal for my little company because we haven’t moved outside of Illinois,” Kolquist said. “It’s challenging and it’s exciting.”