THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290441
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Job training for the 3,000 jobs MacArthur Center will create is expected to begin next summer, developer Alexius Conroy said Wednesday.
The programs, he said, should give trainees ``an edge on anybody else'' who applies for jobs at the 17-acre downtown shopping center.
Hiring could begin in the summer of 1996, several months before the mall's scheduled opening in October 1996.
Technically, Conroy - as developer - would be in position to hire only a few applicants. The vast majority of employees would work for merchants.
However, Conroy said he will be working closely with merchants on job-training and hiring programs.
For example, Conroy reiterated his intention that Norfolk residents would get preference in hiring.
``One of the reasons we're here is because there's a potential substantial pool of employees down here. They live in the city and we want to appeal to those people both as employees and as customers,'' Conroy said.
While Conroy's position does not commit the merchants to hiring any specific groups of people, such as public housing residents who live near the site, the developer said:
``The opportunity is open to everybody. I think that the people who want jobs will be able to go through the programs and be qualified if they make the effort. Anybody who wants to make the effort, we're open to. So we're going to reach out to people, but they have to make the effort to participate.''
Officials at Norfolk City Hall andthe Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority have said that more than half the jobs at the mall will be ``made available'' to public-housing residents who qualify.
Conroy expects the job-training programs to be held through the downtown Norfolk branch of Tidewater Community College.
The programs would be organized around specific job skills needed by mall businesses, he said.
There will be no fees for the training programs, Mayor Paul D. Fraim said.
Other details, such as income qualifications, are being worked out, said Stephen W. Cooper, real estate development director for the redevelopment authority.
Conroy said he expects the community college ``to produce finished products that go through those programs, that are the best applicants that we possibly could have for the jobs available.''
``Our effort is all about . . . opportunities,'' he said.
Conroy noted another jobs benefit from the mall, the potential creation of 7,500 spinoff jobs in Norfolk.
The ``spinoff from those (mall) jobs usually are considered 2 1/2 times,'' he said. Those employment positions would be in the creation or expansion of support businesses such as coffee shops, dry cleaners and other services, Conroy said. by CNB