Business

Hundreds of jobs come to Bensonhurst

December 13, 2011 Denise Romano

Share this:

Bensonhurst is in business.

The American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, which services25 percent of all publicly traded companies in North America, hasrenovated its offices on 15th Avenue, creating hundreds of jobs forthe neighborhood.

They took a blighted, white elephant of a building and make itfantastic, said Bill Guarinello, chairperson of Community Board 11at a recent meeting.

Assemblymember Peter Abbate added that there are now 200 to 300employees in the building and the number will grow up to 800.

People will be going out to lunch and walking through theneighborhood, he said. There will be a presence there to showwhat can happen. We want this to be a destination for peoplelooking to leave Downtown Brooklyn, Wall Street andWilliamsburg.

Mark Healy, chief executive of the company, said that it isessentially a transfer agent, servicing 4,300 companies in NorthAmerica. Any company that goes public has a transfer agent thathandles all of the records of the IPO, he explained. As for theissuer itself, we schedule its annual meeting and proxyvoting.

The company, founded in 1971, was built as a private company andexpanded one client at a time. Its main offices have always been inBensonhurst.

It grew out as a local employee referral process, Healy said.These folks grew with the company and attracted more people. Wedeveloped a large base of employees from the local Brooklynarea.

But the company was acquired by an Australian private equityfirm last year, which offered it a large number of incentives tomove out of the area.

The reality was, we wanted to continue to grow the company andattract more talent, Healy said. The quick decision would be tomove towards a more urban area. But since we had such a loyalrelationship with Brooklyn, we decided very quickly not to takethose offers and refurbished the buildings.

Healy said that the company would continue to recruit locally,keep all of its current employees and try to attract talent fromother areas to Bensonhurst.

We are able to build the core of business here, he said. Alltechnology that our clients use comes out of this building – it’s avery unique business model.

Healy also said that the company has a global presence. Out ofthis building, we also service employees of companies in over 70foreign countries, he said. The company services almost 20 millionshareholders globally.