Most of the 100 employees at Williams TravelCenters' Nashville headquarters will be out of work as early as March, company officials announced this week.

Williams will close its Nashville offices sometime between March 1 and no later than March 31, according to Kelly Swan, a spokesman for the Tulsa, Okla.-based firm.
Two months ago, Williams Cos. announced it would sell its 60-store TravelCenters unit to Pilot Travel Centers of Knoxville for $190 million. Most of the jobs performed by the 100 Williams employees in Nashville will be handled by Pilot workers in Knoxville, Swan said, although a "handful" may receive offers from Pilot.
The Nashville workers include 41 workers in human resources, finance and information technology, along with 59 employees in operations.
Laid-off workers will receive severance pay based on years of service. The 1,900 Williams employees who operate the travel centers aren't affected by the headquarters closing, he said.
"It was a very difficult decision for Williams," Swan said. "It's a talented group of employees. They have basically grown that travel-center operation from the ground up," starting with five stores in the late 1990s. He described the centers as "very large-scale convenience stores" that cater to professional truck drivers and everyday motorists.
Knoxville-based Pilot Corp. and Marathon Ashland, a Findlay, Ohio-based oil refiner, own equal shares in Pilot Travel Centers, which has 236 stores and 10,500 employees in 37 states.
The sale was part of Williams' effort to focus on its core businesses of petroleum pipelines and natural gas production and processing.
Williams will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes and to retire $109.2 million in debt associated with the centers.