PRESQUE ISLE – The MBNA call center in Presque Isle, which opened in 1998 on Green Hill Drive, as well as satellite offices in Fort Kent, Farmington and Portland, closed its doors for the last time Friday.
   Bank of America, which merged with MBNA last year, opted to close the four satellite offices, but decided to maintain its Belfast site which houses MBNA’s primary operations in Maine.
   In June, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company announced it would reduce the combined national workforce of Bank of America and MBNA by 6,000 employees because of the buyout and duplication of services.
   Carolyn Marsh, spokeswoman for Bank of America, said representatives from both organizations had identified redundancies and ways to achieve efficiencies, and determined that tele-sales was one of the areas in which both companies were heavily invested.
   “From a point of view of infrastructure and cost of the operation,” she said, “it made more sense to close the four centers in Maine.”
   Marsh said that anybody at any of the sites has the opportunity to post for open positions at Bank of America, and they will be given assistance in making that transition in posting for those jobs.
   Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Commissioner Jack Cashman said there are opportunities for other businesses in all four of the satellite offices. Cashman added that his department has been working closely with Bank of America representatives to address the issues of the impacted sites.
   “DECD has been in serious negotiations with other businesses interested in occupying each of the four satellite offices,” said Cashman. “Every effort is being made for a seamless transition to have new employers in place at each location.”
   Officials with the Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP) have shown the building to a handful of interested parties, and are optimistic that another business will eventually fill the void.
   “We have shown the building to three national corporate real estate firms, as well as another business recently,” said Walt Elish, president and chief executive officer of APP. “We’re getting the word out about the facilities to as many people as we can.
   “We’re hoping to meet with Bank of America soon to get their feel for how they want to handle those facilities [Presque Isle and Fort Kent],” he said. “Would they prefer to sell them, lease them, under what kind of terms, would they be interested in selling those to a local investment company? We want to meet with them and talk about those possibilities.”
   Mike Jordan, Rapid Response representative for Aroostook and Washington counties, said the Presque Isle CareerCenter has been working very closely to help the displaced MBNA workers.
   Informational sessions were held Feb. 22 in Presque Isle and Feb. 23 in Fort Kent.
   “Those sessions were held to tell workers at MBNA what services are available from the CareerCenters and how to apply for unemployment,” said Jordan. “We also held workshops to better prepare the workers for the next phase in their professional lives.”
   Jordan said the March 6-8 CareerCenter workshops dealt with resumes, interviewing and financial aid.
   “The workshops were pretty well attended,” he said. “The idea is to give them some job search tools and skills that will help them find new employment.”
   MBNA was a bank holding company headquartered in Wilmington, Del. prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2005. It was the world’s largest independent credit card issuer specializing in affinity marketing.
   On June 30, 2005, MBNA announced that it was being purchased by Bank of America for stock and cash totaling more than $35 billion. As of Dec. 15, 2005, the Federal Reserve Board gave final approval to the merger, which closed Jan. 1, 2006.