[LMich]

Another few hundred new jobs, downtown, but I really wish the retail would start following, and it just hasn't been.

Blue Cross will move 250 jobs downtown

Melissa Domsic • [email protected] • October 15, 2009 • From Lansing State Journal

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan workers will descend on downtown Lansing in the next couple of years when the insurer moves its area operations into the current Accident Fund Insurance Co. of America headquarters.

Detroit-based Blue Cross said Wednesday it plans to move about 250 Lansing-area employees into the 130,000-square-foot building at 232 S. Capitol Ave. once Accident Fund moves its own work force into a new headquarters being built at the site of the nearby Ottawa Power Station.

Blue Cross owns worker's compensation insurer Accident Fund.

"It's adding to the vibrance of downtown," Mayor Virg Bernero said. "It's more people to eat at the restaurants. It's more people to potentially stop at a retail establishment."

Accident Fund, a for-profit company that pays property taxes, will sell its current building to Blue Cross, a nonprofit entity that does not pay property taxes.

Blue Cross officials did not indicate how much the move would cost.

This spring, Blue Cross sold about 130 acres along South Creyts Road near Interstate 496 in Delta Township to Auto-Owners Insurance Co.

About 240 Blue Cross employees work out of 50,000 square feet of office space on the site. Blue Cross will lease the building from Auto-Owners before moving downtown in spring 2011.

Another 10 employees will relocate from the company's office on Ionia Street. Blue Cross plans to sell that office.

Financial services and insurance is a key sector in the Lansing area, so it's important the Blue Cross jobs didn't move outside the region, said Tim Daman, president and CEO of the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce. The insurance sector employs about 8,000 in the Lansing area, according to chamber data.

"Even though we may see jobs moving from Delta Township to the city of Lansing, this is still a positive economic story for the greater Lansing region," Daman said.

Accident Fund is redeveloping the Ottawa Power Station downtown into a 333,000-square-foot headquarters. The $182 million project is still on track to be completed in early 2011.

The insurer plans to house about 1,100 employees at the new site, including roughly 650 it now has working downtown and 500 workers expected to be hired over the next 10 to 15 years.

Since Blue Cross has a smaller Lansing work force than Accident Fund, there likely will be two empty floors once Blue Cross moves into the Accident Fund building, said Daniel Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. "In the perfect world I'd rather fill it with Blue Cross personnel. Whether we can or not is another question," he said.

Loepp said the company will consider whether to consolidate more employees from around the state at the downtown site.

Blue Cross employees will be able to park at nearby parking ramps Accident Fund workers currently use.