Global Contact Services, with a current staff of 45, will close its doors on Aug. 12, after four years of operations in Kingsville.

The call center, located at 2211 S. Brahma Blvd., provides services for many of the largest companies in the world, including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and American Express.

According to Bucky Cline, GCS Vice President of Organizational Development, the call center is holding a job fair this Tuesday through Thursday for prospective employers to come in and recruit their employees.

“We have also been in contact with the Texas Rapid Response Team out of Corpus Christi who will be speaking to our employees regarding any severance pay and benefits,” he said.

Cline said employees were given a 60-day notice of the closure to ensure that they had ample time to find another position.

Dick Messbarger, executive director of the Greater Kingsville Economic Development Council, said they are already working out a prospect to move into the building as soon as possible.

“Almost immediately after we received word of the closure we got in contact with a site selection company,” he said.

Messbarger said the building, which is owned by the city, includes most of the equipment inside such as computers, cubicles, and furniture which will be left behind after GCS leaves, so it would only be logical that another call center move in.

The company first opened its doors in July 2006 after the buildings previous call center, Calling Solutions, closed in 2005.

“That’s all that the building is good for,” he said. “The site is a tremendous recruiting tool for that type of business, especially in this area, because it is a state of the art call center facility with all the latest technology, and there is already a trained workforce present,” Messbarger said.

He said this type of business is essential for a community of this size and serves as a vital employer for a variety of citizens.

“The good thing about call centers is that they provide employment for a segment of the community that has a more difficult time finding positions and a person can walk in there without any type of skills because they will be trained on site and they can put them to work immediately,” he said.

GCS’s main employees were predominantly single female heads of household, college students, and high school students, Messbarger said, which make up a large group in the community.

“This is unfortunate and we hate to see GCS go because they were great for this economy and community, but it’s sort of the nature of the call center business in our current economy, so its understandable.” Messbarger said.

Global Contact Services employs 1,500 associates in 10 other locations that include Texas, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio.