NEWS

Nationwide’s multi-year effort to bring its Columbus workforce closer together took a big step this week.

The insurer officially opened its first office building in its new corporate campus at Grandview Yard at 1000 Yard St. The four-story, 330,000-square-foot building eventually will be home to 1,900 Nationwide workers, who began moving in this week.

A second office building, about half that size, is being constructed next door and is expected to open late this year.

When complete, the two buildings will have about 3,000 workers at the site, putting them within two miles of 11,150 employees Nationwide has at its corporate offices at the Downtown area.

“It makes the most efficient and effective way to run our business and meet the needs of our policyholders,” said Brian Ellis, president and COO of Nationwide Realty Investors, Nationwide’s real-estate arm and the developer of Grandview Yard. “We are always trying to do it better.”

“This is a significant step in that process,” Kieran Sherry, Nationwide’s vice president of corporate real estate, said of the new building and Nationwide’s plans to relocate workers. “It give us an opportunity to overhaul our Columbus alignment.”
Columbus’ core has taken on a more significant role for Nationwide in recent years.

In 2010, Nationwide had fewer than 8,000 workers Downtown in 2010 when it announced it was moving 1,400 jobs from Dublin to Downtown. By the end of this year, that number will grow 11,650.