Narayan AmmachchiGrupo Karims, the Honduran property development group, has unveiled plans to expand its Altia Business Park in San Pedro Sula, investing an additional $18 million.
Grupo Karims will add a new seven-storied building to its expansive business park, creating much more space for foreign BPO firms planning to expand operations in the country, according to La Prensa, the country’s Spanish language newspaper.
“We will invest $18 million into the new facility,” said Yusuf Amdani, president of Grupo Karims, in a media conference this week.
Altia Business Park has become a hot bed of BPO activity in Honduras since opening there about six years ago, with most foreign call center firms in the country owning an office in the facility.
The expansion underlines the growing office demand from call center and BPO service providers.
Made up of three main buildings, the business park also houses a shopping center, a recreation center, and a hotel, as well as the Central American Technology University (Unitech).
Among the major foreign BPO players operating in the park are Alorica, Convergys, Allied Global, and KM2 Solutions.
Some analysts believe that the Altia Business Park laid the foundations for the growth and the success of the call center industry in Honduras, which is still plagued by drug-related violence.
The main draw for foreign BPO players in Honduras is the easy availability of low-cost, bilingual speakers, and its geographical proximity to the U.S. As part of its corporate social responsibility, Grupo Karims has initiated an education program to increase the volume of bilingual talent here.
Over the past two years, BPO players are exploring beyond Altia and San Pedro Sula. StarTek, for example, launched a delivery center in Tegucigalpa. As a recently as July last year, Knoah Solutions, a U.S. call center firm, also set up its first Latin American operation in the Honduran capital.
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