With a $2 million renovation completed, a Redmond cellular phone call center plans to nearly double its number of workers.

The Consumer Cellular facility at 2999 SW 6th St., near Redmond Airport, features new office and meeting space, remodeled restrooms and a newly done parking lot. It has room to house 700 employees, up from the current 357. With the six-month renovation complete, the company also signed a 10-year lease extension on the building with New York-based landlord Lexington Realty Trust.

Consumer Cellular is Redmond’s fourth largest employer, behind the Redmond School District, St. Charles Health System and PCC Schlosser, a firm that makes titanium cast parts for military and industrial uses, according to Redmond Economic Development Inc. and Economic Development for Central Oregon.

Portland-based Consumer Cellular opened the Redmond facility in August 2012 with 150 employees, taking over the site of a former T-Mobile call center, according to Bulletin archives. The T-Mobile facility had been the city’s largest private employer when it closed two months earlier, with 360 workers. But the building hasn’t seen significant improvement since it opened.

“I think we were going on 16 years since the building first opened with T-Mobile,” said site manager Tiffany Smith after a July 9 ribbon cutting for the newly-remodeled building. “It was definitely needing a refresh, it’s really exciting for employees.”

The biggest improvement to the 75,000-square-foot building comes with the added meeting space, Smith said.

“We were really limited on conference rooms previously,” she said. “It’s just been really nice to have. We do a lot of team building and staff meetings.”

The facility is an incoming call center for Consumer Cellular’s customers, which the Portland-based company says is largely seniors with no-contract phones.

“We are taking incoming calls from customers that are needing either help with their phones or their bill or they’re wanting to find out more new services,” Smith said.

The job makes employees feel like a member of the family, said Jeannie Roura, who has been a supervisor with Consumer Cellular for seven years.

“It’s not going to be one of those typical jobs,” she said she advises prospective employees. “It’s one of those where we invest in them and they invest in you.”

While the company has seen a slow in hiring, Smith said that is largely related to the job market being so strong in the area. Consumer Cellular features numerous amenities to entice employees, including a gym with workout equipment that’s open during business hours, easy chairs and a game room with pool and foosball tables. It has an onsite automated store with sandwiches, drinks and ice cream that officials say is restocked daily. They also have an employee event like a barbecue or ice cream social each month.

“We have a really positive, great environment,” Smith said. “We focus a lot on our employees and the people that work here and try to make it as good an environment as possible.”

Pay starts at $15 per hour, which includes benefits, and, depending on performance, can reach up to $17.25 after 90 days, depending on performance, according to a company spokeswoman.

The company recently hired two new recruiters for the Redmond site and holds walk-in interviews every Tuesday and Thursday for anyone looking for a position, Smith said. It plans to reach 600 employees in Redmond by the end of 2019.

The Redmond facility, with its walls splashed with bright colors, typically tops employee surveys as the best of Consumer Cellular’s call centers to work at, topping facilities in Portland and Phoenix, Smith said. She said that has to do with the people who come to work there being so friendly and people-focused.

“My very favorite thing about working here is the people I work with every day,” Smith said. “It’s one of those jobs where, even though there’s a lot of us that work here, it really feels like a family. It’s one of those places where you walk down the hall and people are smiling and saying ‘hello’ to each other. It’s very difficult to have a bad day here.”

Patience is the key to working with customers, said Landen McKeown, who has been a customer service representative for a year-and-a-half at Consumer Cellular. He enjoys getting to talk with people across the country.

“Just be personable,” he said. “I’m a red-blooded American, they’re a red-blooded American. We’re just talking about phone service.”

Redmond Mayor George Endicott, one of the dignitaries on hand for the ribbon cutting, was impressed with the building and its people.

“There is a real vibe here in the building, and you just get that sense of real positive energy,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, gfolsom@redmondspokesman.com