Wyndham Vacation Resorts to lay off 400

Wyndham Worldwide Corp. will close its Wyndham Vacation Resorts call center in Springfield in February and lay off approximately 400 employees.

The employees were notified Tuesday, according to company spokeswoman Liz Hutchison. The decision is part of New Jersey-based Wyndham's overall restructuring, which will result in 4,000 eliminated jobs companywide and an $800 million reduction in vacation ownership interest sales in 2009.

"With the credit markets showing no signs of improvement, we are effectively eliminating our need to access the securitization markets to support an otherwise well-performing vacation ownership business," Wyndham Worldwide Chairman and CEO Stephen P. Holmes said in a news release. "If the markets are available, we will certainly utilize this effective form of financing, but we are assuming that the markets will be unattractive for the foreseeable future."

Wyndham has been in the Springfield market for eight years, Hutchison said. The call center is located at 1839 E. Independence St.[[In-content Ad]]