BEDC welcomes CGI to Belton

Thursday, 27 October 2011 by Keith Bahlmann

The Belton Business Park will be home to CGI Group Inc.'s new U.S. center of excellence, a project that will bring up to 400 new jobs in five years, with the majority of these jobs offering above Bell County's per capita average wages.

CGI will become one of the largest private employers in the community generating an estimated annual economic impact in the Belton area of $61 million1 within their first five years of operation.

CGI's new center, an approximately 40,000 s.f. facility, will provide world-class IT systems development, maintenance and integration services to U.S. federal, state and local governments, as well as commercial enterprises. Services include application development, maintenance and delivery; testing and quality assurance; network engineering and design; data center support; and back-office business functions.

"CGI is pleased to be working in partnership with the Belton Economic Development Corporation and the City of Belton to create additional highly-skilled IT jobs onshore in America," said George Schindler, President, CGI US. "With access to local veteran and military family members as well as college and university talent, we will continue to hire America's finest and brightest, while also providing our customers with the high-quality, high-value IT services they have come to count on. We look forward to becoming a part of the Belton community."

The Texas Governor's office along with the Belton Economic Development Corporation, the City of Belton and many community partners worked diligently over the last six months to recruit this company. Collaboration with Texas colleges and universities, including Texas A&M-Central Texas, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Temple College were instrumental with the recruitment efforts.

"Belton and the state of Texas are investing in CGI, and CGI has chosen to invest in Belton as the site of its next corporate facility. Let me extend my deep appreciation to the numerous partnerships and hard work of many across the Central Texas Region that helped bring this dream to reality, especially the Belton Economic Development Corporation," stated Jim Covington, Mayor of Belton.

CGI will generate job opportunities in fast growing occupations demanded by new age job markets. It would become an important job source in Belton and a magnet to recruit and retain young talent. "CGI is a great fit for Belton, Texas. Our community's quality of life, skilled and diverse workforce and central location has put us in a great position to be a long term partner with CGI. The BEDC believes that CGI's move to Belton will prove to be a catalyst for economic development activity in our community. We are proud to have recruited this company and we look forward to welcoming them to Belton," said Chris Moore, President of the Belton Economic Development Corporation.

These new job opportunities for young professionals, combined with Belton's "quality of place" and the city's commitment to ongoing community improvements, make Belton an ideal place for young families to call home.

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