News Room

August 17, 2002

Assurant Group Celebrates New Springfield Service Center Opening with Visit by Ohio Governor Bob Taft

170 New Jobs Created at Ohio Facility Over the Past Year

SPRINGFIELD, OHIO: Assurant Group today celebrated the opening of its new $20 million service center here with an open house for employees and their families and visits by the company’s top executives and Ohio Gov. Bob Taft.

"We like to say we embrace change, and change is all about growth," said Bruce Camacho, president of Assurant. "Here you see the reality – change leading to growth in our business, growth in jobs, opportunities for our associates, and increased prosperity for this community."

When the project was announced in August 2001, Assurant said the new center would enable the company to expand its Springfield work force from 430 to nearly 1,200 over the next two to three years. "We’ve started to make good on that pledge by creating more than 170 new jobs over the past 12 months," Camacho said. "We value our ability to execute with urgency and act with integrity. We back up our words with actions, and we deliver on our promises."

Gov. Taft, Congressman David Hobson, R., Springfield, Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland and Ohio Insurance Department Director Lee Covington joined Camacho at a ceremony formally marking the opening of center’s new 26-acre campus.

The three-building office complex is on Leffel Lane, on the southern edge of the city. Assurant moved into the new 150,000 square-foot facility over the Independence Day weekend. The center was formerly located at 30 Warder St.

"The completion of this new facility with its state-of-art technology enables us to move forward with plans to take on more clients, increase the portfolio of mortgages that we service here and offer more technology-based products and services," Camacho said.

Headquartered in Atlanta and Miami, Assurant is a leading provider of specialty risk management programs for financial institutions, retailers, manufactured housing, auto dealers, utilities and others. Its products and services include insurance, extended service contracts, membership programs and related outsourcing services. The company is part of Fortis, an international financial services provider active in insurance, banking and investment.

The Ohio Service Center provides hazard and flood insurance tracking and escrow disbursement services for a portfolio of about 6.8 million residential mortgages. It annually processes more than 12 million pieces of mail, handles about 480,000 telephone calls and makes more than $3 billion in insurance premium payments from borrower escrow accounts.

Assurant is the leading provider of lender placed hazard insurance and hazard insurance outsourcing services for the U.S. mortgage industry with total portfolio of about 17.7 million loans. Its clients include six of the top ten mortgage servicing companies, including the nation’s three largest servicers. It operates similar centers in Duluth, Ga., Florence, S.C., and Orange Calif.

"Our passion for excellence combined with our commitment to integrity means that we will always try to do the right thing," Camacho said. "And what is right today is to celebrate this grand opening, this opportunity for our people, for our company, and for this community."

Miachel (sic) Lawson, an Assurant vice president, manages the Ohio Service Center. He singled out the Springfield City Manager Matt Kridler and Economic Development Administrator Tom Franzen for special thanks. "It was their support, aid and guidance that insured that Springfield, Ohio, was the only choice for our new campus."

Assurant received about $1.7 million in state and local grants and incentives to support the project.

The Springfield Group, LLC, owns the new facility. Assurant has negotiated a 15-year lease, with an option to renew. Laughlin & Scanlan Construction Inc. of Springfield served as construction manager and general contractor. McCall, Sharp Architecture, also of Springfield, was the architect.

Assurant has more than 5,500 employees with operations in 11 states, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. Fortis had total assets of more than $400 billion at yearend 2001. Fortis ranks 31st based on assets and 85th based on revenues on the Fortune ‘Global 500’ (July 22, 2002) and 38th on the Forbes Global ‘Super 50’ list (July 3, 2002). Fortis is listed on the Amsterdam (FORA), Brussels (FORB) and Luxembourg (FOR LX) stock exchanges and has a sponsored ADR program (FORSY) in the United States.

Media contact

James A. Sykes
Director, Corporate Communications
Assurant Solutions
260 Interstate N. Circle, SE
Atlanta, Ga. 30339-2111
Telephone: 770.763.1015
FAX: 770.859.4325
E-mail: james.sykes@assurant.com

Reference: 0213