Liberty
Mutual confirms it's bringing 5,000 jobs to Plano
Apr
7, 2015 - Dallas Business Journal
After
months of speculation, Boston-based Liberty Mutual confirms its is bringing
up to 5,000 jobs to a new campus at Plano's $2 billion Legacy West
development by 2017.
The
employees will be consolidated from other parts of the country into Liberty
Mutual's new Plano campus, which was recently identified
as one of six hubs for the insurance company as it seeks to better
serve its domestic insurance clients.
"We
are exploring options to build a new campus in Plano in the Legacy West area,"
Liberty Mutual spokesman John Cusolito told the Dallas Business
Journal."We intend to have up to 5,000 employees in this new campus. This
will not replace our home office, which is in Boston."
The
site for Liberty Mutual's new campus has yet to be selected within the Legacy
West development in Plano.
Last
week, Cusolito told the DBJ the company had no
North Texas expansion plans beyond a small call center operation,
which would employ "several hundred employees."
Liberty
Mutual recently leased a two-story, 159,000-square-foot call center along the
Dallas North Tollway for a call center. Those workers will be moved to the new
campus when it is completed, he said.
The
new campus is part of Liberty Mutual's larger expansion plan, which includes
hiring 25,000 to 35,000 workers in the next five years for a combination of new
jobs and positions expected to open as people retire, Cusolito said. Liberty
Mutual employs more than 50,000 workers in more than 900 offices throughout the
world.
"We
are in the process of completing several critical steps for this new campus,"
Cusolito said, though he declined to specify the steps.
The
5,000 jobs in Plano would be a combination of current employees in Dallas-Fort
Worth, the new call center workers and new jobs becoming available with the
company in North Texas, Cusolito said.
"We
are evaluating how we will populate that new operation," Cusolito said. "From
what we know today, we will bring the employees in the new call center into this
operation. This new campus will have operations besides a call center and we are
looking at which employees make the most sense for the new
campus."
Liberty
Mutual is in discussions with the City of Plano about possible tax incentives
for the campus. Cusolito said a public hearing on an incentive package is
expected in the next month. The incentive package could be worth several million
dollars, based on other large company moves into the
municipality.
"We
are having earnest discussions with Liberty Mutual to accommodate anywhere from
4,000 to 5,000 employees at a Plano campus," said Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere.
"We are excited about these conversations to bring a high-quality company to the
city."
Plano
already has half a dozen companies with more than 3,000 employees, including
Toyota North America (once its new North American headquarters campus is
completed), Capital One, Bank of America and Hewlett-Packard. Liberty Mutual
would join that elite group, LaRosiliere said.
"This
is further evidence that the Legacy Business Park is the premiere place where
companies want to be because we have the amenities and services for their
employees," he said. "Plano is the total package and we have what people
want."
Legacy
West is a $2 billion, 240-acre corporate magnet that already counts
Toyota and FedEx Office among its soon-to-be tenants. The Liberty Mutual campus
is expected to be roughly 1 million square feet of office space, which could be
spread throughout two office towers. The company expects to unveil designs
later.
"This
is huge to the area," Legacy West developer Fehmi Karahan said. "The development
of the site is already being prepared for this at the Tollway and Headquarters
(Drive), which is the proposed location. They still have some things they need
to do with the city."
Dallas-based
KDC is the developer of the project. KDC is also developing the corporate
offices for Toyota and FedEx Office.
