IBM Corp. said Wednesday it will cut a big chunk of its
Rochester real estate holdings, selling as much as 1 million square feet of
space to an outside developer, as it consolidates employees in its remaining
buildings.
Still one of Rochester's biggest corporate presences despite
years of cutbacks, the Armonk, N.Y.-based computing giant said it will retain
eight buildings and that the sale would "involve no personnel
changes" apart from the moves between buildings. The Rochester
Post-Bulletin has the statement and a report on the move.
Gary Smith, president of Rochester Area Economic Development
Inc., said that he'll work with IBM to market the property, and says there is
already interest in some of the space; enough to fill about 100,000 square
feet.
As for IBM, it's already designing new office spaces that
will encourage collaboration in its remaining buildings.
"I see this as a positive development," Smith
said, noting that much of the space being put up for market was already empty,
but had been well-maintained by IBM, and that the move to redesign existing
space showed a commitment to the market.
IBM began building the Rochester campus in the mid-1950s,
hiring modernist architect Eero Saarinen who covered the buildings in blue
panels(a nod to Minnesota's skies and IBM's "Big Blue" nickname).
Eventually it grew to more than 3.6 million square feet and
8,000 employees as the city became a manufacturing hub for some of the company's
most powerful supercomputers.
But IBM (NYSE: IBM) moved most of the manufacturing
operations out of Rochester in 2013, and was cutting back even before then. Now
focused more on cloud and "cognitive computing," IBM doesn't say how
many employees are currently based in Rochester, but estimates range between
2,000 and 3,000.
As it has cut back, IBM has started leasing out space in the
campus to companies such as Charter Communications.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2016/05/04/ibm-selling-rochester-buildings-real-estate.html
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