KeyBank’s nationwide call center in Tacoma will close this year. Two hundred employees will be laid off from the facility at 2420 S. State St. on the edge of Hilltop.

Tom Spilman, KeyBank South Sound District president, spoke with the affected employees in meetings earlier today. He explained that other call-center positions would be made available in Cleveland, where the bank has its headquarters, or in Buffalo, NY. Other positions may also be available in the Puget Sound area, he said.

“We anticipate all these employees will be employed through June, and perhaps through the end of the year,” Spilman said in an interview this morning.

The layoffs “will be transparent to clients” and will not affect the bank’s 146 branches in the state, he said.

Fully 170 other employees at the facility will maintain their jobs. These workers are engaged in such back-office functions as vault management and internal mail delivery.

The employees being laid off may also find opportunities in the Puget Sound region, Spilman said. “We have a ton of talented people there. We will assist them with employment with Key and elsewhere.”

The decision to close the canter – a decision made in Cleveland – reflects a changing environment in banking, Spilman said. The volume of calls to the bank has decreased since the center opened in June, 2006, and more clients have been making use of online facilities.

“The volume starts to decrease,” Spilman said. “When you look at our efficiencies and volume, I think it’s the right decision. But it is painful.”

During the meetings with workers this morning, he said, “there was emotion in the room. We take the decision seriously.”

The closure does not portend further cuts, he said. Key’s South Sound region employs 549 people, and the Seattle district 925. The bank has also made recent commitments to local branches, ordering major rehabilitation to branches in Shelton, Gig Harbor, Lakewood and Puyallup.

“We continue to invest in our branches and our network,” Spilman said.

The Esplanade, a 162-unit condominium development on the Foss Waterway, has its first residents.

Judy Mayfield, head of sales, confirmed Tuesday that eight units are occupied and that the sales closed just before Christmas.

"We have homeowners on two waterfront corners, three city view (units) occupied ... something on every side of the building," she said.

In October Mayfield said that the Esplanade had 21 pending sales, and it was unclear Tuesday afternoon whether the eight purchases were part of or in addition to those.

UPDATE: Mayfield said that as of Tuesday, the Esplanade has two pending sales and four contingent sales. The rest of the pending sales that were reported in October have been lost because of delays in closings and other factors.

Package express giant FedEx Corp. will buy an additional 15 Boeing 777 Freighters, the company said today.

But it will also postpone delivery of some of the 777s it already has on order.

The express carrier had been scheduled to accept delivery of four 777s in 2009. Now it will be receiving none. The company will instead take delivery of four 777 Freighters in 2010 and four in 2011 with three each year after then.

FedEx said it had rescheduled deliveries because of the economic slowdown.

In anticipation of an economic revival, the company also took options on 15 more 777s bringing its total potential order to 45.

Bloomberg News reports today that Macy's plans to slash its merchandise levels -- even at the risk of losing sales.

The rest of the story:

Bracing for the slowdown, Macy’s shrank its inventory by 7.5 percent in December, faster than the 4 percent drop in sales by stores open at least a year, Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren said in an interview in New York Monday.

“I want to chase the business for a while,” Lundgren said. “I’d rather risk losing some sales than having too much merchandise. It’s going to be a tough, tough 2009.”

Lundgren’s comments followed a prediction Monday by H. Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., who said U.S. holiday sales may increase slightly in 2009 if they rise at all. A loss of 2.6 million jobs in the U.S. last year and sliding home and stock values have shaken consumers so badly they may rein in spending even as the recession ends, Scott told the National Retail Federation’s annual conference in New York.

Lundgren said he expects “it will continue to be promotional for a very long time” after Macy’s cut prices as much as 75 percent in a sale on Jan. 10. The company said last week it plans to close 11 of its 859 stores.

“We feel very good about the stores we have left” and plan no additional closings, Lundgren said.