Nationwide to build more offices near arena
September 2nd, 2011
Marla Matzer Rose, The Columbus Dispatch
Nationwide said yesterday that it will build an office building near Nationwide Arena to house 1,000 employees it plans to relocate Downtown.
The $26 million building, 10 W. Nationwide, is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.
Most of the workers moving to the 200,000-square-foot building are employed by Nationwide Retirement Plans and work in Dublin. By the end of next year, Nationwide expects to have 8,600 workers Downtown.
Last year, Nationwide said it planned to move 1,400 workers from satellite offices in Dublin and Grove City, but that number has grown to 1,900. The company will continue to have a smaller number of employees in those suburbs.
“Bringing additional associates to the Nationwide complex Downtown fosters greater collaboration, which is good for our members,” said CEO Steve Rasmussen in a statement. “We are pleased that our investment in the Arena District allows us to bring more of our people together.”
The building will go up on the site of a surface parking lot on the northeast corner of Nationwide Boulevard and Front Street. Those using the lot have been notified that it will close this weekend as the company prepares to start preliminary work on the project.
Nationwide’s real-estate development arm, Nationwide Realty Investors, plans to present final plans for the five-story building to the Columbus Downtown Commission at its Sept. 27 meeting and begin “vertical” construction of the structure by November.
The announcement comes two weeks after Nationwide Realty Investors revealed plans to build a $10 million, 51,300-square-foot office building anchored by the FBI on the south side of Nationwide Boulevard west of Neil Avenue. That project is expected to be completed in October 2012.
Nationwide Realty Investors also plans a $50 million headquarters for Columbia Gas of Ohio, a project that is to break ground in 2013 and be completed in late 2014.
Office projects by Nationwide Realty Investors planned for the next three years have a combined value of $86 million.
Twelve years ago, Nationwide unveiled plans for the Arena District on the site of the former Ohio Penitentiary, and it has since invested more