Vivint to shut down new sales center in Washington state

It was big news last summer when Provo, Utah-based Vivint opened a new 400-employee sales center in Liberty Lake, Wash., suburb of Spokane. But now, barely a year later, Vivint is closing that center, the company says.

Starr Fowler, Vivint's VP of human resources, provided this statement: "It has been a pleasure to be part of the Liberty Lake community, which has hosted one of Vivint's sales centers for the past year. Due to a reallocation of resources, the Vivint Liberty Lake office will close on June 27, 2014. At that time, all employees are eligible to receive severance, and some employees will be offered the opportunity to relocate to Provo, UT. If of interest, employees are encouraged to apply for other positions with Vivint, and their application will be considered. Vivint remains committed to providing world-class customer service to its more than 800,000 customers across North America.”

It's not clear exactly why Vivint is reallocating resources away from the center. According to reports from Washington state media, it's also unclear whether Vivint ever reached its planned goal of hiring 400 employees.

The new center was billed as part of the home automation/ home security company's plan to diversify its sales channel by increasing inside sales. Vivint has been known primarily as a door-knocking company. Vivint has said the Liberty Lake center was its second inside sales center and its first outside of Utah.

Vivint received a $150,000 incentive to open the Liberty Lake center from an economic development fund managed by the Washington governor's office, according to The Spokesman-Review.

Why the change in plans? I'm going to try to learn more from Vivint execs.