Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline.com Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN) Wednesday said it had signed a long-term lease and is moving forward with plans to establish a new customer contact center in the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming.

Priceline.com is a leading global online travel service, launched in 1998. In 2007, it generated $4.8 billion in gross travel bookings.

The new Michigan call center will occupy 45,670 square feet of a former Siemens Dematic office building at 4147 Eastern Ave. SE. It will provide support for customers who make hotel reservations through Booking.com, Priceline’s international business unit. Priceline.com believes that Booking.com, which is based in Amsterdam, is Europe’s largest and fastest growing hotel reservation service.

The center also will house credit control operations and writers, translators and editors responsible for generating content for Booking.com’s Web sites, which are available in 18 languages in 65 countries.

“One reason Michigan was selected is that it has a sizeable pool of talented professionals who possess the specific and wide-ranging skills required for the various functions of the call center,” said Jeffery H. Boyd, Priceline president and CEO. 

Priceline.com also received state and local incentive packages to bring the center to Michigan. Local business development firms that played key roles in bringing Priceline to Michigan include the West Michigan economic development organization The Right Place Inc. and Harrington Consulting Group.

When state officials approved tax breaks for the project in June, the company said it planned to have 50 to 100 jobs in the call center by year end and eventually as many as 400 jobs overall.