Sprint will hire up to 100 at new regional hub in LR

Sprint Corp. will open a new office in Little Rock and add up to 100 new jobs at the location by the end of the year, the wireless carrier announced Friday.

Sprint said the new location, at 900 S. Shackleford Road, will serve as the headquarters for its South Central region, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

“The telecom industry has really exploded,” said Lit-

tle Rock Mayor Mark Stodola. “We’re very, very proud to have Sprint’s regional headquarters.”

Sprint expects to move into the new offices in June. The company has 34 stores in Little Rock and more than 230 locations statewide.

Sprint has already started hiring to fill its new regional headquarters, said Jonathan Blitz, president for the company’s South Central region.

He said the new headquarters will allow the company to focus more on customer experience.

Blitz said the jobs will be a mix of full-time and part-time positions, with the annual salary of some full-time jobs ranging between $40,000 and $50,000.

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission will give Sprint a cash rebate equal to 3.9 percent of new payroll for 10 years for opening its regional headquarters in Little Rock, said spokesman Scott Hardin in an email.

The commission also will

provide up to $166,000 for workforce training, he said.

“Some of the crown jewels in economic development is to bring headquarters to the state,” said Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday during the state’s third job announcement this week.

On Tuesday, Shandong Sun Paper Industry Joint Stock Co. said it will build a $1 billion pulp mill in Clark County near Arkadelphia.

Officials said the mill will employ up to 250 people with an average salary of about $52,000 a year. The facility also is expected to provide another 1,000 jobs in the logging industry, and between 2,000 and 2,400 jobs during the construction of the mill.

And on Thursday, GW Communications said it will open a new office in Paragould. The Texas-based broadband company plans to employ more than 28 at the new office. The company’s clients include Windstream, which is based in Little Rock.

“It shows the strength we have and place we have in [the telecom] industry,” Hutchinson said of Sprint’s new headquarters.