Ace Hardware announces plans to open Customer Care Center in Fort Myers. Fla.
Ace Hardware Corporation, the world’s largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative, is pleased to announce the opening of a new Customer Care Center in Fort Myers, Fla. The new office facility is located at 4700 Terminal Drive, and resides within Page Field, the premier business and general aviation airport of Southwest Florida, owned by the Lee County Port Authority.
The opening of the Fort Myers Customer Care Center is part of a strategic, three-year plan to grow and transform the co-op’s Customer Care division. Once fully staffed, the 10,000 sq. ft., fully renovated office space, will employ approximately 110 Ace corporate team members.
The Ace Hardware Customer Care Center manages communications and helps bridge information gaps for customers of Ace Hardware retail stores, and acehardware.com e-commerce customers — all with the helpful knowledge and spirit that has become the hallmark of Ace’s business. Team members hired for the Fort Myers office will have access to the full suite of benefits offered to qualified employees of Ace Hardware Corporation. These benefits include competetive wages, paid vacation allocation, retirement savings, comprehensive health and life insurance, and birth/adoption paid time off for new parents.
Leaders from Ace Hardware selected Fort Myers as the site for its new Customer Care Center following an extensive site search covering more than 900 metro areas. “The Fort Myers area was extremely attractive to us for a number of reasons,” said Kane Calamari, Vice President, Human Resources, Organizational Development and Communications, Ace Hardware Corporation. “The region offers access to high quality talent and a competitive lease rate for our new facility, coupled with excellent support from the region, including the Lee County Port Authority, Lee County Economic Development Office, and CareerSource Southwest Florida.”
“The Lee County Port Authority would like to welcome Ace Hardware as a new business partner and tenant at Page Field,” said Jeff Mulder, A.A.E., Executive Director of the Lee County Port Authority. “We are confident their new office location on airport land, minutes away from downtown Fort Myers and the growing US 41 corridor, will be great match for their team.”
“The Lee County Economic Development Office welcomes Ace Hardware Corporation and is pleased the company recognized the opportunity available in our community,” said John Boland, Executive Director, Lee County Economic Development Office. “We look forward to an ongoing partnership.”
“CareerSource Southwest Florida is pleased to partner with Ace Hardware Corporation’s establishment of a Customer Care Center in Fort Myers, “ said Joseph Paterno, Executive Director, Southwest Florida Workforce Development Board. “Our staff will assist with the recruitment and pre-screening of applicants over the next several months. A number of hiring events are being planned and prospective applicants are encouraged to register at employflorida.com.”
Ace Hardware engaged McGarvey Construction Company of Florida, Inc. (Estero, Fla.) as the General Contractor for the facility build out. Construction for the new office space will be complete by the end of August 2017 and recruitment is currently under way. Employment opportunities can be found at acehardware.com.
# # #
About Ace Hardware
For more than 90 years, Ace Hardware has been known as the place with the helpful hardware folks in thousands of neighborhoods across America, providing customers with a more personal kind of helpful. In 2017, Ace ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Home Improvement Retail Stores, Eleven Years in a Row," according to J.D. Power. With more than 5,000 hardware stores locally owned and operated across the globe, Ace is the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., Ace and its subsidiaries operate an expansive network of distribution centers in the U.S. and also have distribution capabilities in Ningbo, China; Colon, Panama; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Its retailers' stores are located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and approximately 55 countries. For more information on Ace, visit acehardware.com or the company newsroom at newsroom.acehardware.com.
