Great West building larger facility

Business Today

KENNETT -- Great West, formerly General American Life Insurance Co. Claims Inquiries office, is constructing a new facility for the corporation.

The 20,000-square-foot building will be located on South By-pass, on what will be called Great West Drive, and it is scheduled to be completed by June 2002. The announcement was made Dec. 17.

According to manager Freddie Graham, Great West has outgrown its current facilities in the Old K-Mart Building, located in Walsh Plaza off of South By-pass. "We are just moving down the street, but the new building is being constructed for Great West and will afford us the room we've grown to need," she said.

Graham said that through a change of command at GenAm and a name change brought about when GenAm was acquired by Great West, there was some confusion with the grants and monies that had been set aside to build the new office.

Some of the funds for the new construction were generated through state programs such as Enterprise Zone Credits, Development Tax Credits and Job Training Funds through the Workforce Investment Board. In addition, the city of Kennett is helping with Chapter 100 bonds and the city will own the building and lease it to Great West.

Great West started out with 39 employees six years ago and now has more than 120. Graham said five new positions will be moved to the new facility.

As of mid-December, the center had processed 10 million insurance claims, imaged 15 million pieces of mail and had data-processed another two million pieces. Graham said the center has a 99.84 percent rate for meeting the timeliness goal.