Staff report

Published Oct. 25, 2011

PricewaterhouseCoopers plans to move its 400 workers who handle IT, data processing and administration functions to the former Verizon customer support center in Richland Mall.

The move, which will take place in waves over the next year, will consolidate the company’s operations in Columbia under one roof and on one floor, said Steve Silber, PwC spokesman.

Services provided by the Columbia office support “the entire firm across the country,” he said.

The move also will provide PwC, which four years ago launched the back-office operation in Columbia with a “relative handful” of workers, room to grow, Silber said.

“One of the reasons we chose this space is that it can accommodate potential growth over the years,” Silber said, adding that the company is continuing to grow.

PricewaterhouseCoopers reported $29.2 billion in revenues for the 12-month period ending on June 30, a 10% increase over fiscal year 2010 results. It was the highest rate of growth since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008, the company reported on its website. PwC, a global company headquartered in London, provides a range of accounting and consulting services.

The workers, a combination of full-time PwC employees and contract workers, will be vacating about 60,000 square feet in two downtown Columbia buildings at 1333 and 1441 Main St.

The move will enable “people performing these kinds of functions to collaborate in one space, and one that is well-configured for our needs,” Silber said.

PwC’s Columbia operations will be moving into 73,911 square feet of the 162,800-square-foot service center that Verizon occupied before the company moved its operations in 2010 to a new building at Interstate 20 and Spears Creek Church Road in northeast Richland County.

Although PwC has had offices in South Carolina for decades, it started the administrative support functions in Columbia in 2007.

“We have found the workforce in Columbia to be quite skilled and we’ve been very pleased with the support,” Silber said.

The Columbia area has emerged as a hotbed for technology companies, particularly those involved in insurance analytics. The insurance technology cluster in Columbia employs about 7,000 to 8,000 people and has an annual economic impact of more than $1 billion.

Silber said workers will begin moving Dec. 1 when the lease on the Richland Mall site begins. The move is expected to be finished by next fall, he added.