The Orangeburg County Development Commission wasted no time Tuesday in adding the Carolina Regional Park's TRX Inc. call center facility to its Internet list of potential business sites.

TRX Industries officials announced Monday the company will close its doors next month as part of a company-wide cost-cutting effort.

Closing the 60,000-square-foot facility will result in 108 job cuts by April 30.

"You know our group will be running hard to make sure we fill this up quickly," OCDC Executive Director Hal Johnson said. "It is a phenomenal facility with tremendous infrastructure and in proximity to colleges. We have a great location and a great labor base."

As part of the closure, TRX is moving work to its call centers in Milton, Fla., and Parkersburg, W. Va.

Orangeburg's 319 seats make it TRX's largest call center and the most costly from a rent standpoint, said Tim Severt, executive vice president for administration at TRX's Atlanta headquarters.

Workers at the call center make an average of about $9 to $10 per hour. The company primarily served as an on-line booking firm.

The Atlanta-based company, which moved into the Orangeburg area in July 2000 with much praise and optimism, employed 280 people five years ago.

Johnson said news of the closure did not filter down locally until a few days ago, and his discussions with company officials have revealed few details.

TRX purchased the 30,000-square-foot Carolina Regional Park facility in May 2000 from the hotel and rental car giant Cendant.

"It was an economic decision," said Farrell Harwood, TRX's director of marketing. "TRX is going through a U.S.-based consolidation of its operations. This is definitely the primary driver in our decision. It had nothing to do with the Orangeburg market."

Harwood said the company has already been able to place about 24 employees with new employers and continues to work with various job-placement centers for the other employees.

"We have offered up for any of the Orangeburg staff that are interested in relocating to these locations (Florida and West Virginia) to apply for open jobs available," Harwood said. "We have offered relocation packages for our Orangeburg teammates."

Orangeburg County Economic Development Partnership Chairman Marion Moore said the impact is unclear.

"We obviously feel like we have a great product, and I don't think we will have any problem filing that space up," said Moore, who, along with Johnny Evans of C.F. Evans Construction, developed the CRP in the 1990s. "Obviously we hate to lose them. They have been here a long time."

TRX is one of three telemarketing companies that call Orangeburg home. Reese Teleservice and BellSouth's Nationwide Directory Assistance Service are the others.

The announcement comes on the heels of Orangeburg County's January unemployment rate increasing to 10.8 percent. The percentage ranked the county 10th in the state in job futility.

The closure joins other recently announced state closures of two factories and a warehouse, which are scheduled to close by July with about 300 total jobs lost.

Across South Carolina, about 1.79 million people had jobs in January. That's about 9,600 more jobs than a year earlier.

But declines continue in manufacturing. Factories employed 266,100 people in January 2005, about 1,000 fewer than in 2004.

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