Federal contractor takes over former Comcast call center in Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS — A federal contractor based in Maryland has leased out 31,000 square feet of space in an east Fort Collins office, months after Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA) closed its call center there.

In a statement from lease broker CBRE, ASRC Federal Holding Co. agreed to sublease the space at 3420 E. Harmony Road from Comcast beginning in the third quarter of this year.

ASRC, or Arctic Slope Regional Corp., operates broadly as a contractor to federal intelligence, aerospace and health-care information-technology agencies. It is also wholly owned by a group of about 13,000 shareholders of Alaskan Inupiat descent.

It has 21 offices across the U.S., including one in Colorado Springs serving military agencies.

Billy Morrissen, president and general manager of federal civilian activities for the company, said the Fort Collins office will work with the local U.S. Department of Agriculture offices on software development and IT modernization.

The company currently has smaller offices around the city that it plans to consolidate into the Harmony Road office over the coming months. About 400 people in Fort Collins currently work for ASRC, and the office is expected to hold over 600 people at full capacity.

Local ASRC staff are all working remotely for the time being, and the company is waiting on state and local officials to determine when it would be safe to gather people into the office.

“Looking ahead, we will continue to follow the guidance of local authorities and our customers in our assessment of what a return to the ‘office’ looks like,” Morrissen said.

The entire 184,384-square-foot building is owned by McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc., and houses marketing software maker Madwire LLC and a local office for U.K.-based information-technology firm Micro Focus International plc.

Comcast closed the call center at the building last September as part of a companywide effort to allow staff to work from home. All 237 of the call-center employees were given the choices to work from home offices, transfer to another physical location or leave Comcast altogether.

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade touted Comcast’s expansion efforts in 2016, offering $8.1 million in various incentives and expecting the cable company to house up to 600 employees there.

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