Fishers-based mortgage company to add 300 jobs

A Fishers-based mortgage company plans to expand into a new corporate headquarters in the Indianapolis suburb and add 300 jobs by 2015, the company announced Tuesday morning.

Stonegate Mortgage Corp. will move next spring from its current location near 106th Street and Allisonville Road to a 29,000-square-foot office at 9998 Crosspoint Blvd., near 106th Street and State Road 37.

Stonegate, which was founded in 2005, handles residential mortgage work such as processing and underwriting loan applications; managing escrow accounts; and purchasing mortgages from financial institutions.

The company serves 14 states in the Midwest and South. In addition to the Fishers office, Stonegate has five additional retail locations, with two in Indianapolis, two in Columbus, Ohio, and one in Overland Park, Kan.

The 162-person company with 88 Indiana workers has begun “actively pursuing new employees and will continue hiring in 2011 and beyond,” said Jim Cutillo, the company’s founder and CEO.

The new positions mostly include skilled jobs such as loan originators and processors, IT experts and business analysts, with salaries averaging $28 an hour.

Cutillo said the company’s strategic effort to avoid subprime lending—or offering loans to those with blemished or limited credit histories—has helped it succeed during a sour time for the industry. Cutillo formerly worked for major subprime issuer GMAC.

“I think it was irresponsible behavior—I also knew that it wasn’t sustainable,” Cutillo said. “I was looking to build a company that would last well beyond the subprime loans.”

That strategy initially meant slower growth for Stonegate, but it has seen an uptick since 2008, adding 150 employees and attracting new capital from two new equity investors.
 
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is providing Stonegate $3.7 million in performance-based tax credits and $50,000 in training grants. Fishers also has offered the company a 10-year property-tax abatement of up to $760,000.