Downtown to get more than 1,000 high-tech jobs in major lease and construction deal for Des Moines
KENT DARR May 19, 2016 | 3:44 pm
<1 min read time
0 wordsAll Latest News, Business Record Insider, Economic Development, Real Estate and DevelopmentCognizant Technology Solutions Corp., a multinational corporation that is based in New Jersey with a presence in Des Moines, plans to hire more than 1,000 people and occupy office space in Two Ruan Center as well as build two office building in the Gray’s Landing development.
The company, one of the leading STEM recruiters in the United States, currently employs slightly more than 400 people in Des Moines who work out of two office buildings downtown.
According to an application for state of Iowa high-quality-jobs tax credits, the company will spend more than $14 million to lease 50,000 square feet of office space in Two Ruan Center and to lease two 54,000-square-foot built-to-suit office buildings. The costs also include expenses for remodeling and computer hardware.
The Iowa Economic Development Authority board will consider a forgivable loan of $812,000 when it meets Friday as well as a rebate of sales taxes on construction materials.
The city of Des Moines also is working out the details of an incentive package that includes tax increment financing for the Gray’s Landing office building project.
Cognizant’s investment in Des Moines is significant on several fronts:
- The company plan to add 1,014 jobs over the next few years;
- Its expansion helps fill space at Two Ruan Center, which until the last year has struggled to fill a significant amount of unused office space;
- And the presence of two office buildings in Gray’s Landing will help fulfill promises made nine years ago by Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates Inc. for an elaborate mixed-use project in an area south of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and between roughly Southwest Ninth and Southwest 16th streets.
A Holiday Inn has been completed along Southwest 14th Street, where the two buildings will be built for Cognizant, and plans are pending for two apartment complexes and an 80,000-square-foot office building.
The office buildings will “really make that area look different and draw more attention to the area,” said Naomi Hamlett, economic development coordinator for the city of Des Moines.
If the state incentive program is approved, Cognizant would have five years to add the new jobs and would be expected to retain those jobs for another three years. The company is working on a five-year lease at Two Ruan Center and would eventually move employees from that building to the new office buildings in Gray’s Landing.
In 2012, Cognizant ING U.S., a subsidiary of Dutch financial services giant ING Groep NV, announced it had entered into a seven-year agreement in which Cognizant will establish an “insurance center of excellence” that will have operations in Des Moines and Minot, N.D. ING is now Voya Financial Services. Read more on BusinessRecord.com.
Cognizant employs approximately 233,000 employees globally, with more than 41,000 employees in the United States, according to a report to the Iowa Economic Development Authority board.
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