USDA Research Center In Overland Will Bring Hundreds Of Jobs

October 15, 2010

USDA research center in Overland will bring hundreds of jobs

By Tim Bryant
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

A data processing center for the U.S. Department of Agriculture will bring about 400 full- and part-time jobs to the St. Louis region next year.

All but about 50 of the jobs will be new to the area, officials said Thursday. Hiring for the center — called the National Agricultural Statistics Service — will begin early next year. The center will occupy the current Overland home of the government's military records center. The records center will relocate next year to Spanish Lake.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement that the new center is part of USDA's effort to consolidate operations and better serve the statistical needs of agriculture and rural America.

"USDA's investment in statistical research is key in helping us understand emerging trends in agriculture and the farm sector and in providing more efficient service to America's farmers, ranchers and rural communities," he said.

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley said the new center will boost the area's economy.

About 100 of the jobs at the new National Agricultural Statistics Service center will be full time, officials said. About half of those jobs will be filled by workers who will relocate from existing USDA centers outside St. Louis. The NASS center is scheduled to open in late 2011 at 9700 Page Boulevard.

The General Services Administration, which plans to spend $35 million at the center over the next five years, will make the building more energy efficient, officials said.

The center will allow NASS to centralize data analysis and data processing work currently done by 46 field offices, which will remain open.

Construction is under way in Spanish Lake on the $112 million building to replace the military records center in Overland. That project, scheduled for completion next year, will ensure retention of about 800 jobs.

The records center, at 1829 Dunn Road, will hold the records of 57 million people who served in the American military from the late 1890s until a decade ago, when the service branches moved to electronic records.