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By VITO FORLENZA; Special to The Times Leader
Wednesday, July 30, 1997     Page: 1A

SCRANTON – Nearly four years after the Globe Store’s closing, speculation
about who or what would occupy it ended, as Diversified Records Services Inc.
announced Tuesday it is buying the building.
   
The downtown Scranton site will act as the company’s corporate headquarters
along with an Image Processing and Technology Center. The company also will
build two information centers in the Scranton Office Park at Montage Mountain.
    “We intend to employ 600 people in the first three years and grow from
there,” said company President Clifford Melberger. “We still have great plans
for West Pittston and Wilkes-Barre, but this place fit us like a glove.”
   
Melberger added the Scranton area allows the company’s New York clients
easy access to the new facilities. The former Globe Store will be renovated
for a state-of-the-art technology center, including document imaging services,
document storage, retrieval and information management services to Fortune 500
companies.
   
“This is a great day for the city of Scranton and Northeastern
Pennsylvania,” said Scranton Mayor James Conners. “The world is realizing the
hard work of the people in Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
   
A new building became necessary after a fire destroyed one of the company’s
buildings in West Pittston on May 5. That location, which held documents such
as canceled checks, personal records and medical files for the company’s
clients, was the largest of eight in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area.
   
The positions of the 200 people employed there will be retained, causing
officials to boast of 800 total jobs created by the relocation.
   
Of those jobs, officials anticipate 72 percent will be direct staffing
positions, 12 percent management and 16 percent support personal. The company
will still employ about 100 people in West Pittston in that city’s four
locations.
   
Shortly after the fire, Melberger visited Scranton while determining where
the company, which was founded in 1981, would relocate. Melberger, a West
Pittston native, added he was committed to keeping jobs in Northeastern
Pennsylvania.
   
“The value of having the CEO and headquarters in downtown Scranton is
immeasurable,” said Austin Burke, Scranton Chamber of Commerce president.
   
That statement was backed by economic figures showing the effect of
Diversified Records’ entrance to the city. According to a written release, the
company brings more than $150 million in wages over the next 10 years, meaning
$2.5 million in local wage taxes to the city.
   
Although the deal between Diversified Records and the city has yet to be
finalized, Melberger said he would like to begin remodeling the building
immediately and hopes it will be completed by Christmas. Construction at
Montage should start before Christmas and may be ready by June 1998.
   
Diversified Records will occupy the upper floors of the building, leaving
the possibility of retail to once again exist in the former Globe Store on the
lower levels.
   
TIMES LEADER/DON CAREY
   
Clifford Melberger of Diversified Record Services Inc. announces Tuesday
that his company will renovate and occupy the former Globe Store in downtown
Scranton. The announcement came at a press conference Tuesday in Scranton.