After considering other site locations for a move, one of
the Greater Lehigh Valley’s largest employers has decided to stay in the
region.
New York-based Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America, a
national life insurance company with a prominent Greater Lehigh Valley
presence, announced that construction has begun on a corporate office building
for 1,500 employees.
The three-story office building is going up on a 31-acre
vacant property at 6100 Bath Pike off Route 512 in Hanover Township,
Northampton County. Once complete, Guardian’s corporate office address will be
6255 Sterners Way near the Traditions of America at Hanover property, an adult
community.
The Norwood Co. of Malvern performed the site work and is
constructing the building, while Langan Engineering of Bethlehem is performing
the engineering services.
The building could be finished in June 2016.
The mutual life insurer, which has been in the area since
1984, has two locations near the new site, including an office at 81 Highland
Ave. and another across the street at 3900 Burgess Place. Both offices are in
Hanover Township, Northampton County. The company will vacate both offices and
a third office site at 1605 N. Cedar Crest Blvd. in South Whitehall Township
and move those employees and consolidate them into the new building.
“They are one of 15 companies in the Valley that employ
more than 1,000 people,” said Don Cunningham, president and CEO of Lehigh
Valley Economic Development Corp. “It’s going to open up some office space in
the region. It will obviously take some work for the brokers in backfilling
that.”
LVEDC helped Guardian’s brokers and real estate advisers
look at a dozen or more options, and the economic development organization
stayed in touch with the company throughout the site-selection process,
Cunningham said.
Other organizations that helped included the Lehigh
Valley Workforce Investment Board and the Governor’s Action Team, a group of
economic development professionals.
It’s important to talk about the companies who decide to
stay and add jobs in the Valley, not just to focus on those new companies
coming into the market, Cunningham said.
“When you have a company that employs more than 1,000
people, that’s never something you take for granted,” he said. “Really in
today’s day and age, they have the opportunity to be located anywhere they
want.”
The 281,680-square-foot building will be 52 feet tall, in
the shape of an “H” and include two wings with a connector in the center and
1,500 parking spaces for the same number of employees.
The office building will include a pedestrian trail to
circle the property. Other features include a town hall space, walk-up
technology support center and fitness center.
To enhance productivity and energy efficiency, the
company will locate all offices in the center of the building to maximize
natural daylight and outside views.
The company also is making efforts to adhere to the
latest standards for energy efficiency, designing the building to be a
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building, with the
interiors designated as LEED Silver.
Developer David Jaindl sold the property this month to
Guardian Life Insurance for $1, according to Northampton County property
transactions.
Source: Central
Penn Business Journal
No comments:
Post a Comment