CEDAR FALLS - The PRC call center in Cedar Falls, scheduled to close in the coming weeks, will not sit idle for long.

Focus Services, a Utah-based call center service provider, announced Tuesday it had purchased the former PRC facility, located at 6322 University Ave. in Cedar Falls, and would be employing at least 200 people beginning this fall.

Florida-based PRC announced in March it was closing the center and relocating 70 jobs to its other offices throughout the country in the wake of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

"Our purchase was just the assets, but currently we're holding interviews with PRC employees," said Focus Services director of human capital Logan Kashanipour.

Focus Services' purchase of the 9,300 square-foot PRC building marked the fourth such purchase the company has made in the Midwest since October 2005. Focus acquired call centers in Clinton, Dubuque and Rock Falls, Ill., from Illinois-based APAC over the last 18 months.

"We are groing at a fast rate right now," said Kashanipour. "The centers we have right now are at maximum capacity, so we need somewhere else we can put the work."

Kashanipour said the company could fill "a couple" of the positions internally, but the majority of the 200 jobs would be filled from the current staff and the community.

"Obviously we have a balanced economy and everyone has different job needs, so we wish them well," said Cedar Falls mayor Jon Crews.

Contact Drew Andersen

at (319) 291-1418

or drew.andersen@wcfcourier.com.