Wendel Companies moving in an Amherst game of office-space musical chairs

Its another round of office-space musical chairs among Amherst office tenants.

Architecture and engineering firm Wendel Companies is expanding and moving its headquarters office to Ciminelli Real Estate Corp.s Centerpoint Corporate Park, gaining more space but leaving behind an empty two-story building on John James Audubon Parkway.

Wendel Companies, with seven offices around the country, will occupy 37,000 square feet on the second floor of 375 Essjay Road, the largest building at the Centerpoint complex, with 75,461 square feet of space on two floors. Thats 10,000 square feet more than what Wendel currently has at 140 John James Audubon, where it shares a long, two-story building with Columbus McKinnon Corp.

Meanwhile, the Essjay building currently houses operations and employees of Independent Health Association, which in turn is vacating the entire building after acquiring another one nearby from Ciminelli. Wendel will take up half of 375 Essjay, while the entire first floor will become available for lease, as of Nov. 1, at $22.50 per square foot, according to a real estate listing on CityFeet.com.

Our focus during this process was on productivity and sustainability, said Stewart Haney, president and CEO of Wendel, in a news release. We decided that keeping an Amherst address would best accommodate the majority of our employees and provide access to transportation to support clients in Western New York and across the U.S.

Wendel, which employs more than 200 people in all, will take occupancy of its new corporate headquarters space in April 2015 under a long-term lease.

The firm now has about 145 employees at the Audubon building but is getting cramped as it grows and adds more staff, prompting the move. Plans also call for moving its architecture group to its downtown Buffalo office at the Electric Tower, which it also plans to maintain and expand.

The biggest driver was growth, our need for additional space to grow into in the next five to 10 years, Haney said in an interview. Our intent is to grow in all our offices if we can.

Additionally, he said, the firm decided it wanted to re-use an existing building, not construct a new one.

We thought it best to find something already in Amhersts inventory, and this building works perfectly, he said. He noted the presence of a Wegmans supermarket, nearby restaurants and other services as appealing.

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Wendel Companies moving in an Amherst game of office-space musical chairs