THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 5, 1995 TAG: 9512050319
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
The New York Times Co. will open a financial processing center employing 100 to 120 people in downtown Norfolk, sources say.
The parent company of The New York Times newspaper will lease about 25,000 square feet in the east wing of the World Trade Center. The office is scheduled to open in January.
The arrival of the media company could help tighten the commercial real estate market throughout South Hampton Roads. The large surplus of vacant space in downtown Norfolk has prevented real estate rates from climbing rapidly, although many large office parks in Virginia Beach and other cities in the region have nearly filled.
The New York Times Co. announced its arrival in Hampton Roads with large ``help wanted'' ads in The Virginian-Pilot.
On Oct. 8, the Times Co. ran an ad seeking a human-resources manager that announced: ``The New York Times Company has plans to open a state-of-the-art, consolidated financial processing center early in 1996 in the Hampton Roads (Norfolk/Virginia Beach) area of Virginia.''
It ran a subsequent ad on Nov. 19 seeking a senior analyst/project leader, programmer analysts and technology support consultants.
Sources close to the deal consider the incoming jobs to be well paid on the back-office service-sector wage scale, which can run as low as $5.05 an hour up to more than $14 an hour.
The office will handle management-information systems, including various financial processes, accounting, expense reporting and payroll.
Because of the speed with which the firm wanted to open its Hampton Roads operation, it looked at all the cities in the region but quickly eliminated some due to lack of adequate existing space.
Goodman Segar Hogan Hoffler Inc. represented both The New York Times Co. and the World Trade Center's landlord, Aetna Life Insurance Co.
Forward Hampton Roads was instrumental in showing The New York Times Co. various sites in the region. The company looked at 44 other communities nationwide before deciding on Norfolk, a source said.
The company's arrival might help bolster the region's construction industry. Commercial real estate professionals have said that speculative construction would not take place until vacancy rates in downtown Norfolk drop.
According to the 1995 Society of Industrial and Office Realtors/Landauer nationwide survey of office and industrial space, downtown Norfolk's vacancy rate for premier, or class A, office space was 26.8 percent. But that vacancy rate was expected to drop during the year, according to the survey's forecast. by CNB