GEICO Expected to Add 300 Jobs Here: Formal Announcement Expected This Morning

National auto insurer GEICO Corp. will be adding about 300 jobs to its Amherst service center, boosting employment to about 1,800, sources confirmed Tuesday.

Gov. David A. Paterson is expected to make the formal announcement at 11 a.m. today at the CrossPoint Business Park facility.

The Washington, D.C.-based carrier, the nation's fourth largest private-passenger car insurer, will move a home insurance agency subsidiary to Amherst. The jobs are expected to be filled during the next two years.

The new jobs will represent a 20 percent expansion of the local service center, which currently employs about 1,500 workers handling sales, underwriting, servicing and claims for the company's customers in New England and New Jersey.

Sources familiar with the plans said the growth stems from the company's decision to move its existing national home insurance agency subsidiary from Fredericksburg, Va., and other locations to Amherst.

That operation fields calls and answers questions from customers nationwide interested in obtaining home insurance coverage through GEICO.

State and local assistance is expected as part of the deal to bring the jobs, including benefits from the Empire State Development Corp. and from the Amherst Industrial Development Agency, which is considering a proposal at its meeting Friday. Details were not available Tuesday.

GEICO is the nation's largest direct marketer of auto insurance but also offers insurance for motorcycles, boats, homes, apartments and mobile homes.

The new jobs represent the first significant growth for the 251,000-square-foot center in at least two years.

First announced in December 2003 with fanfare and more than $100 million in state Empire Zone tax breaks, the facility opened in March 2004 in temporary quarters on John Muir Drive, with 75 workers, before eventually moving to its new home in September 2005.

Originally designed and intended to house up to 2,500 workers, the $40 million center was to have 1,400 claims employees and 1,100 in sales, service, underwriting and support functions when it reached its full potential over 10 years.

It reached 830 in November 2005, mostly in sales, underwriting or service, and then expanded its claims operation before hitting 1,350 workers in October 2007. It has grown only slightly since.

e-mail: jepstein@buffnews.com