By Kenneth Macdonald
Amherst, NY – Amherst is getting a big economic boost. Governor Eliot Spitzer appeared at the CrossPoint Business Park in Amherst yesterday to announce that Citi is expanding its operations.
Amherst beat out Long Island, Chicago and Toronto for the project. The company looked at a total of 40 cities before selecting Amherst. The company will construct a second building at CrossPoint.
It will initially create 700 new jobs with a potential of 300 more in future years. Governor Spitzer praised Citicorp for it's investment in the Amherst and was pleased to learn it did not decide to outsource overseas.
"What we are seeing here is the spark that will begin the fire, that will be a rampage across this community. More and more companies are understanding that what had been a surge of outsourcing of jobs, no longer is making as much sense," said Spitzer.
Most of the jobs will be in finance, operations, risk and transaction services with average starting salaries in the $45,000 range.