Carfax has purchased four acres directly to the south of its data center in the Lemone industrial park and plans to build a 10,000-square-foot addition to house its growing operations.
The company expects to hire 45-50 employees in the next three to five years, Vice President Gary Lee said Friday. The Carfax workforce has grown from 120 to 135 full-time workers in the past three years, and it has run out of room, particularly in its parking area, where there are only 122 spaces, Lee said. The company has seven job openings that it is currently trying to fill, in part because the used car market is beginning to pick up, Lee said.
Carfax uses the 17-character vehicle identification number, or VIN, located on dashboards and in title documents, to generate a detailed history report on any used car or light truck.
Construction is scheduled to begin next spring and be finished by the end of next year. The current data center, covering 23,000 square feet, opened in 2003. The expansion project was held up by the negotiations to bring IBM to the building that is adjacent to the Carfax data center. The city and property owner were unsure how much land IBM wanted for its location, Lee said, and it turned out the Big Blue needed only a half-acre of the land Carfax wanted to purchase.
The Sound of Stillness
Kelsey Winkeljohn
