CINCINNATI -- The days of free parking are numbered for about 850 Procter & Gamble Co. employees, suppliers and contractors, who will be relocated from the Winton Hill Business Center to P&G’s global headquarters complex next year.
Renovations are underway on the third and fourth floors of the Central Building at Sixth and Sycamore streets, where planning and logistics employees will be housed after fall 2017.
“This move has no impact on P&G’s headcount in Cincinnati as these individuals are already located within the city limits,” P&G spokesman Jeff LeRoy said. “The Winton Hill campus will retain portions of our baby, family and feminine care businesses, some of which are in Cincinnati and some of which are in Finneytown city limits.”
It’s the latest reshuffling of real estate by P&G, which has shed about 2,000 local jobs in a massive global restructuring that included the sale of 105 brands and the payment of $2.3 billion in severance since 2012.
Restructuring costs, disclosed in P&G’s annual reports, show the company paid an average of $124,429 in severance to departing employees in the last five years. The company booked $1.4 billion in asset-related accounting charges to reflect the cost of exiting facilities.
Those costs are continuing to mount, as P&G renovates space to relocate employees and establish long-term homes for its new, leaner workforce.
In Mason, for example, the company is spending $300 million to convert its former pet-care headquarters into a research center for health and beauty projects. About 1,350 employees and contractors will relocate to the site in 2019 from the Sharon Woods Innovation Center in Blue Ash.
P&G also spent $36 million on July 5 to acquire a 50-acre site that holds its Beckett Ridge Technical Center. The company had been leasing the facility, which houses about 550 employees.
The Winton Hill Business Center is a campus-style office cluster that P&G opened in 1958. Over the years, it has housed research labs, planning and logistics teams, food-brand headquarters and business units overseeing diapers, paper products and feminine hygiene brands. The 263-acre campus has 13 buildings comprising almost 1.3 million square feet, connected by underground tunnels under Center Hill Avenue. The complex was last renovated in 2005 to bring 600 planning jobs and a new fitness center to the site overlooking the Mill Creek Valley.
Two buildings west of Center Hill Avenue will be vacated with the latest move, LeRoy said. The company is still evaluating what to do next with the property. It’s also negotiating with parking lot owners to secure spaces for new arrivals to Downtown.
“We have leases signed for some of the spaces and are working to identify other opportunities,” LeRoy said. “We are talking with the city in two weeks to request their help to secure the remaining spaces.”
