If it can find workers, AIG unit looks to expand fast

Initial plans by AIG SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners for a regional office in Reno are modest five employees hired locally to join five transferring from the company's Los Angeles office.

But if the company can find the workforce it wants and needs in northern Nevada, the company is prepared to make a big splash in the region's economy.

The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada estimated last week that the AIG SunAmerica unit could bring 24 new jobs this year, and it estimated the first-year economic impact of the company's decision at nearly $19 million.

Even better, EDAWN said the company represents the sort of high-paying, low-impact jobs in financial services that are among its targets.

AIG SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners leased 3,300 square feet in the US Bank Building at Neil Road and South McCarran Boulevard, and it has the right of first refusal to double its space on the building's fifth floor.

It all depends on what the company discovers from its recruiting efforts, says Chief Financial Officer Eric Geisler.

AIG SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of insurance giant American International Group, works with real estate developers who build low-income housing. Essentially, it packages the federal tax credits available to developers of affordable housing and sells the packages to institutional investors.

Launched in 1988, the company employs 187. It handles 70 to 100 transactions a year, and it was involved in deals involving some $1.5 billion in tax credits in the past three years.

Many of the company's back-office employees, Geisler said last week, work at the company's Los Angeles headquarters, where they face long commutes, high housing prices and a less-than-desirable quality of life.

AIG SunAmerica views its Reno office as an experiment.

"This is an incubator for our division," Geisler said. We're trying to provide quality of life for people in our back office."

The company thinks it can find the financial and office skills it needs in the northern Nevada workforce, particularly after the contraction of the mortgage finance industry.

"If we can get people, we're going to grow as fast as we can," Geisler said. "There are great people in Reno."

Greg Mosier, dean of the business college at the University of Nevada, Reno who helps EDAWN recruit companies in the business and financial services sector, assisted with the recruitment of AIG SunAmerica.