Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield is consolidating some of its Little Rock area locations into one building at Riverfront Plaza, the former Alltel Wireless campus largely vacated when Verizon bought its rival wireless carrier and reduced staff.
Blue Cross spokesman Max Greenwood said the health insurance provider will take eight floors -- levels two through nine -- of the 12-story tower known as Building 5 on Allied Drive, the tallest of the five buildings on the campus. Of the 2,000 or so Blue Cross employees working in the area, an estimated 765 will move into the space leased by Colliers International. The transition will be roughly a floor at a time, starting in April and ending in August, Greenwood said.
Colliers' Mark Bentley and Isaac Smith say the coming move of Blue Cross will bring occupancy up to 82 percent, near what it was when the former Alltel established the campus in the 1980s. Building 5, where Blue Cross is going, was the last of the office buildings to go up in 2000. The buildings, except for Verizon's, are owned by an investment group that was put together by Colliers to purchase the properties.
"We've basically absorbed the majority of the empty space that was vacated through Verizon's acquisition of Alltel," Bentley said. "You've got the same number of employees down here, pretty much, that you had the peak of Alltel."
About 3,500 will be employed in all five buildings, "which is pretty exciting," Bentley said. The campus is located close to several lunch- and dinner-time restaurants and is situated on the Arkansas River Trail bike route.
The move will combine claims processing, customer service, customers accounts and membership teams for Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Health Advantage and Blue Advantage Administrators.
"Basically, we've got affiliates and affiliated companies ... and what we're doing is trying to put all those employees together instead of having them spread out all over the place," Greenwood said. There's enough additional space to incorporate support teams later if needed, she added.
Riverfront Plaza is about 10 minutes from Blue Cross' downtown office at 601 S. Gaines St. Free and plentiful parking for employees on Allied Drive was also a determining factor in Blue Cross' decision to move there, Greenwood added. Employees will have 436 parking spaces exclusive to their building and more than 1,000 shared spots.
Lease prices range from $16.50 to $20 per square foot, depending on the floor.
Colliers manages and leases three other buildings at Riverfront Plaza. (Verizon owns its building, known as Building 4.) Buildings 1 and 2 are seven stories each and Building 3 is two stories. Listing agent Mark Bentley said the four buildings under Colliers' care encompass some 400,000 square feet. Verizon's building is about 300,000 square feet.
SundayMonday Business on 02/09/2015