UTICA, N.Y. — The Mohawk Valley branch of Express Employment Professionals, a full-service staffing agency, began operations out of its new location in the newly-renovated Landmarc Building in Utica on Monday.
The 2,800-square-foot office will serve as the headquarters of the local branch, says John Calabrese, branch owner and president, who spoke with BJNN on Monday.
The new office more than triples the branch’s total space, he added.
The branch needed the additional room to expand, says Calabrese. Express Employment Professionals is working to hire one additional employee before adding one or two more in the coming months.
The branch currently has seven total employees, and all but one works full time.
Calabrese also has a commitment from the owners of the Landmarc Building, located at 520 Seneca Street, to lease one of the last available office spaces in the building, he says.
That space is between 1,200 and 1,300 square feet, and will house the branch’s medical-staffing division, Calabrese adds.
Express Employment Professionals previously operated in a 1,300-square-foot space at 4660 Commercial Dr. in New Hartford.
The branch had originally intended to use the space for the medical-staffing division before Calabrese secured the commitment for the additional room at the Landmarc.
The branch will look to sublet the New Hartford space once the medical division moves, he adds.
Calabrese says he spoke with the mayor of Utica in July 2014 shortly after deciding he needed to move his branch into a larger space.
When he learned that Utica was undergoing a revitalization effort, he says he thought it would be ideal for his branch to be both a part of the effort and a catalyst for it.
“We’re very excited to be in downtown Utica,” Calabrese told BJNN. “This gives us the opportunity … to better serve our clients, and that’s really the goal here.”
Before joining Express Employment in August 2013, John Calabrese worked in global commercial operations for Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE), a New York City–based pharmaceutical company, according to a news release Express Employment distributed when the Utica branch for opened in 2013.
He says he left the firm because it required a lot of overseas travel, which was difficult on his family.
Express Employment Professionals was founded in 1983 and is based in Oklahoma, according to its website.
It has nearly 700 franchise locations and employs about 400,000 people.
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