They're exactly the sweet spot, the kind of people we want downtown, city officials say.

Advertisement 1,000 high-tech jobs coming to downtown Des Moines Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The Des Moines Business Record reports more than 1,000 high-tech jobs are coming to downtown Des Moines as part of a major lease and construction deal.Cognizant Technology Solutions will hire more than 1,000 workers who will work at Two Ruan Center and two office buildings in the Gray's Landing development.The Business Record said the New Jersey-based company currently employs more than 400 in Des Moines. Cognizant will become one of the top 10 largest employers in downtown Des Moines.David Maahs was part of a team that spent eight months trying to encourage the company to expand in Des Moines."Cognizant is part of global 2,000 largest companies. They're a Fortune 500 company one of the fastest growing technology companies in U.S.," said Maahs.Cognizant first plan is to move into Two Ruan Center while beginning construction this winter on the first of two new office buildings. After looking at a number of sites, they've chosen to build south of downtown on Martin Luther King Jr. Parking and west of the New Holiday Inn Express in the Gray's Landing development."You move your company to Des Moines because it has a lot to offer. It's safe, low cost to do business, great parks, great schools, and a very productive workforce," said Des Moines Assistant City Manager Matt Anderson.The company plans a big recruiting effort for the 1,014 new jobs ranging from entry level to information technology to technical and customer support to high paying management positions.The company released a statement saying, "Cognizant is one of the largest STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) recruiters in the US and hires experienced workers as well as qualified students from undergraduate and MBA schools.""This is a big millennial recruitment that will go on. You have a lot of entry level jobs. They're exactly the sweet spot, the kind of people we want downtown," said Anderson.According to an application for the state of Iowa high-quality-jobs tax credits obtained by the Business Record, the company will spend more than $14 million to lease 50,000 square feet of office space in Two Ruan Center and to lease two 54,000-square-foot built-to-suit office buildings.The company is seeking a forgivable loan from the Iowa Economic Development Authority board and tax incentives from the city.Cognizant provides information technology, consulting and business process outsourcing services, including business and technology consulting, application development, IT infrastructure services, analytics, business intelligence, and R&D outsourcing.