Loews Hotels announced plans Wednesday to locate 200 jobs in downtown Nashville. The New York-based chain is consolidating accounting and payroll departments for its 19 hotels in the U.S. and Canada.
Loews will be operating in two floors of office space in the Fifth Third building on Church Street. The total investment from the company comes to about $12 million, which includes technology upgrades and relocation expenses. But the consolidation of back office operations is actually a cost-cutting move.
CEO Jonathon Tisch made the announcement in the company’s hotel near Vanderbilt. He says the Loews web site is already being inundated with resumes.
“Some of the jobs are posted already, and to show you some of the interest which we are excited about, we’ve already gotten some 2,000 applications for the first 25 jobs that have been posted.”
Tisch says he does plan to fill many of the positions locally.
Nashville was in competition with 10 other cities for the relocation and offered a $300,000 grant to help attract the jobs.
Mayor Karl Dean says at a time when unemployment is in the double digits, the incentive is a wise use of money.
“We haven’t given a lot of incentives in recent years, but I think this is a special company and this is a special time, and for Nashville to be competitive, we’ve got to step up and do things to create jobs and create opportunities.”
Loews CEO Jonathon Tisch says he expects to fill many of the 200 positions locally. Already, the company has received some 2,000 applications.
Some of the jobs start as early as September.
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