newjerseynewsroom.com

On Monday, Verizon Wireless opened the doors to its new operations and customer service center in Livingston on West Mt. Pleasant Avenue at the Eisenhower Corporate Campus.

After extensive enhancements and renovations, Verizon has turned the former Bellcorp and Prudential home offices into a "green friendly" facility boasting 150,000 square-feet of recycled carpet, sheetrock, energy-efficient lighting topped off with water-saving latrines and flooring.

Employees will enjoy a full-service cafeteria, fitness center and teleconferencing facilities. Mayor Arlene Johnson said, "We're really looking forward to Verizon being a vibrant part of our community. We're hoping some of their 1,000 employees spend time in town, shop at our merchants and really get to know our dynamic town."

Verizon executives expect the new facility, which sits conveniently close to Route 280, to enhance customer service capabilities to its subscribers in Essex County in addition to boosting employment opportunities to local residents.

The new center, which is currently staffed by 600 Verizon employees, has begun relocating employees from their Madison and Scotch Plains facilities and expects at least 1,000 employees to have the center up and running in the coming weeks.

Tom Maguire, Area President for Verizon's Mid-Atlantic region said, "This is a great opportunity for Verizon to streamline our operations and create a more productive work environment all while using new tools a high-tech environment to better engage and serve our customers."

"This new facility allows our sales representatives and other personnel to handle several areas of our business including our industry-leading FiOS service and other voice and data services for consumers and small business," said Maguire.

Verizon, which offers communications and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, is a Dow 30 company, employing a diverse workforce of nearly 222,900. In 2009, the mega-communications giant generated more than $107 billion in consolidated revenue.

— ALICIA CRUZ, NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM