Farmers Insurance breaks ground - will vacate Sheperd Mall

[metro]

Ceremony to kick off Farmers Insurance Group building in Oklahoma City
BY RICHARD MIZE
Published: September 29, 2009

Farmers Insurance Group plans to start construction of its new office building and data center with a ceremony Wednesday that will include executives and state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland.

Gregor Scott, Farmers’ executive director in Oklahoma, Nicolle Welsh, facilities manager for claims service Farmers HelpPoint, Holland and others will speak at noon at 7340 W Memorial Road, where a 163,000-square-foot office building and 13,500-square-foot data center will be constructed.


Read more: NewsOK


What a boring building........

[flippity]

what all is left there? the social security office & farmers?

[metro]

Don't know, haven't been inside in years, but I know Astec Charter School is there too.

[bombermwc]

Yet another group runs up to Memorial Rd....yay...sarcasm.

[stlokc]

I've said this before about similiar moves. I don't understand this from a business perspective. They are a Customer Service Center, correct? I would assume they have customers all over the metro area. They are a significant employer. I would assume they would want to draw talented employees from the largest possible base.

If I were a resident of South OKC looking for a job, how happy would I be to drive all the way to Memorial and Council every day? If I were a customer in Midwest City, would I really want to go all the way to the NW fringe to do business?

OKC is lucky among metro areas (they are not all laid out this way) that our historic, traditional business district is actually in the geographic center of the metropolitan area. If Farmers feels they need lots of surface parking for their visitors, there are plenty of underused buildings for lease/sale in the swath between I-44 and I-240.

Why the answer always has to be brand-new construction on the outer fringe is just beyond me.

[venture]

I don't think customers ever step foot in the existing facility, so that's a non-issue. The biggest issue would probably be their employees that live on the south and east sides of town. Depending on the position and how much they get paid, it can get rough to justify driving 45-60 mins to work every day.

[metro]

stlokc, while I can certainly agree with you about location for employees, and using large unused swathes of land in the existing city, without sprawling it out more, I think you have a misconception of what a call center (or politically correct term, customer "service" center) is. As venture stated, you don't visit them, it's where 1-800 calls get routed to.

[mugofbeer]

While it is unfortunate that a large employer has left Shepherd Mall, its a net win for OKC because Farmers has committed to being here for a significant amount of time. Any good employee is a good corporate citizen.

Trying to stay "glass-half-full," it may start to provide an opportunity for the owners of Shepherd Mall and the city to start looking for an opportunity to redevelop the mall property into a "Town Center" type of multi-use project. Please refer to the Southlake, TX Town Center development, the Flower Mound, TX Parker Square development, the Southglenn Redevelopment project in Littleton, CO, Bel Mar in Lakewood, CO. These are all multi-use retail, office, apartment/condo projects that use a Town Center type of architecture and feel and all are very successful. The demographics around Shepherd Mall are very similar to these projects.

[stlokc]

Metro-My fault. I was not aware that this facility was simply a call center. While I stand by my assertion about the location for employees' sake, I concede that it probably has little visitor traffic.

MugofBeer-I like the direction of your thinking. Refer also to "The Boulevard" in St. Louis, which is a little bit more urban variation of the same idea.

[warreng88]

I drove up Villa passing the mall and noticed all the equipment taking out the parking lot on the west side of the mall. Are they going to parcel that off and sell it to people for restaurants and standalone buildings? Or are they just repaving the parking lot?

[onthestrip]

1. I seriously doubt that area has the same demographics as southlake
2. Now is not a good time for new retail to be built
3. I'm going to guess repaving, that area of the parking lot was pretty beat up before. Plus I doubt that's a very attractive spot to a restaurant

[Kerry]

Yet another group runs up to Memorial Rd....yay...sarcasm.

Why isn't Downtown OKC Inc. doing more to bring these jobs, and new buildings, downtown? If I was only going to make $10 per hour at least give me the job in the middle of some place exciting (not that downtown OKC is exciting but it is better than Memorial Road).

[wsucougz]

Metro-My fault. I was not aware that this facility was simply a call center. While I stand by my assertion about the location for employees' sake, I concede that it probably has little visitor traffic.

Metro has plenty of misconceptions of his own. Less than half of the 1200 employees are involved with the call-center operation. But a customer wouldn't visit this particular office any more than they would return a rental car to the Hertz corporate office.

[mugofbeer]

1. I seriously doubt that area has the same demographics as southlake
2. Now is not a good time for new retail to be built
3. I'm going to guess repaving, that area of the parking lot was pretty beat up before. Plus I doubt that's a very attractive spot to a restaurant

While I agree, Southlake is a wee bit more affluent, Southlake's Town Center is by far the biggest - plus, it lacks a lot of the residential that I think Shepherd Mall could include. The Shepherd Mall area is not that much different from the other projects I listed, however - especially Southglenn in Littleton, CO and Bel Mar in Lakewood, CO. In fact, the Bel Mar area is probably lower income than some of what is in the Shepherd Mall area.

The project wouldn't be built tomorrow anyway so by the time planning was done, financing was sought out, etc, hopefully the economy would have
improved significantly by then.

The last thing this city needs is another row after row of pad sites for fast food!

[venture]

Metro has plenty of misconceptions of his own. Less than half of the 1200 employees are involved with the call-center operation. But a customer wouldn't visit this particular office any more than they would return a rental car to the Hertz corporate office.

It seems to be the case with more people than Metro. But it is also the case with a lot of offices that have been opened in. Dell while it has a call center component as far as routing inbound calls to random agents...it also has a large corporate sales and support operation where the majority of that activity is outbound to managed accounts. Not cold calling. Not random calls.

Such is the life though when these people don't step foot in these facilities are only talk to people that have only been in one department, when a setup like Dell could have up to 20-30 departments under one roof.

[circuitboard]

I think turning this into a small scale west village area like in Dallas, would be cool. Put in nice apartments on top, and restraunts, shopping and bars/clubs on bottom and pleanty of sidewalks.

[Ender]

People in the OKC area do occasionally go to this office finish settling a total loss or pick up checks for settlements. It's not common, but it does happen.

This facility also houses a large data center, their document center to scan all the incoming documents for claims, and several other non-call center departments (as previously mentioned)

[kswright29]

While Farmers takes a lot of space in Shepherd Mall, a good chunck is occupied by state agencies.

[metro]

It seems to be the case with more people than Metro. But it is also the case with a lot of offices that have been opened in. Dell while it has a call center component as far as routing inbound calls to random agents...it also has a large corporate sales and support operation where the majority of that activity is outbound to managed accounts. Not cold calling. Not random calls.

Such is the life though when these people don't step foot in these facilities are only talk to people that have only been in one department, when a setup like Dell could have up to 20-30 departments under one roof.

Sorry, but I've worked at similar facilities for other major corporations. (I've either worked for or been offered jobs at AOL, Farmer's, Williams Sonoma, Sprint, AT&T/Cingular, Dobson, Dell). Call it what it is, a glorified call center. yes these places have many well paying jobs ($50K+), but at the end of the day it's still a call center. No one ever said anything about cold calling (cold calling doesn't equal a call center). A place where you make outbound calls or take inbound calls (regardless of if it's an existing customer) IS a CALL CENTER. Heck, do you not think people calling AT&T or Sprint are either existing customers or wanting to set up service?), not exactly cold calling..... Despite that, the point I and others were making is that customers don't really visit these facilities.

[hipsterdoofus]

Why isn't Downtown OKC Inc. doing more to bring these jobs, and new buildings, downtown? If I was only going to make $10 per hour at least give me the job in the middle of some place exciting (not that downtown OKC is exciting but it is better than Memorial Road).

I wouldn't want to move my company to downtown - it would be a pain in the neck what with parking issues and being more expensive.

Also, just got word that while this may sound like Farmer's is making a long term commitment, apparently they just outsourced all their IT staff and are letting 1000 or so go (I assume that is nation-wide, not just in OKC).

[mugofbeer]

I wouldn't want to move my company to downtown - it would be a pain in the neck what with parking issues and being more expensive.

Also, just got word that while this may sound like Farmer's is making a long term commitment, apparently they just outsourced all their IT staff and are letting 1000 or so go (I assume that is nation-wide, not just in OKC).

Don't get too wrapped up in outsourcing. While it IS possible to outsource virtually all jobs at most companies (re: Hertz and the debacle they did on their OKC employees), it often comes back to bite them in the butt. Smart companies will outsource only to a limited amount. If the company you do business with starts to outsource its customer contact people, you should very vocally start doing business with another company.

[BDP]

7340 W Memorial Road

7340!?

So, that's right around, what... Amarillo?

[metro]

It will be closer for people in Piedmont to commute to this office than from MWC, Moore, Norman, etc.

[Kerry]

I wouldn't want to move my company to downtown - it would be a pain in the neck what with parking issues and being more expensive.

Also, just got word that while this may sound like Farmer's is making a long term commitment, apparently they just outsourced all their IT staff and are letting 1000 or so go (I assume that is nation-wide, not just in OKC).

I thought rents in downtown OKC were some of the lowest in the city, and much lower than Memorial Road. Alas, if you build your own building you don't pay rent. As for parking, most new towers include their own parking. The building I work at in Atlanta (twin 16 stories towers) has the first 7 levels (so 23 stories total) dedicated to parking and it is all free.

[kevinpate]

7340!?

So, that's right around, what... Amarillo?

Nah, just past Rockwell. Still close enough to pack a lunch to Martin Park or run grab something at Quail Springs Mall.