Pittsburgh has trumped Cleveland again.

With some state assistance, the city beat out Cleveland and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., to get TechAssist LLC, an information technology consultant, to locate its national operations center at the National City Center on Stanwix Street, Downtown.

"Rick, you're telling me we beat Cleveland once again, huh?" Mayor Luke Ravenstahl joked with TechAssist President Rick Vossburg at a news conference yesterday. "Any time you beat Cleveland, that's a good thing."

TechAssist is one of two companies that will benefit from $907,200 in state assistance in a funding package announced by Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky.

The other is CardWorks, which will move from Smithfield Street, Downtown, to Station Square on the South Side, where it will consolidate its operations in the Commerce Court building.

CardWorks will receive $468,000 in state aid in the form of tax credits, a grant and job training funds. TechAssist will get $439,200 through a loan, a grant, tax credits and job training funds.

Washington, D.C.-based TechAssist expects to create at least 96 jobs, including executive, engineering, sales and marketing and administrative positions, within three years of opening the operations center at National City Center, where it is leasing 11,000 square feet of space.

Mr. Vossburg, who originally is from Greensburg, said Pittsburgh won even though some of his partners are from Cleveland. He said the turning point was when he and they spent about a week in Pittsburgh checking out locations and the city itself.

"Even they had to admit that this was a far better choice," he said.

TechAssist helps small and medium-size organizations and businesses use technology to become more effective and save money. It eventually plans to make Pittsburgh its national headquarters. It already has temporary offices in the National City building and hopes to have the operations center up and running by Feb. 1. Total project cost is $1 million.

CardWorks, a servicer of credit, debit and pre-funded cards and other such products, had the option of moving its work from Pittsburgh to another office in Woodbury, N.Y.

But it kept its outbound call center and inbound customer care centers here, in part because of the state assistance and also because the staff "didn't want to abandon Pittsburgh," said Harold Baldauf, general partner.

"We are absolutely delighted to stay in Pittsburgh," he said.

The decision will keep 245 jobs here. CardWorks also has pledged to create at least 56 jobs within three years. It will lease 57,511 square feet at Commerce Court and hopes to move into the building in July. The project cost is $1.3 million.