Nationwide sells big West Side office campus to Dallas-based fund as it moves to hybrid work model
/
A Dallas investment fund has purchased Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.’s big West Side campus, which the company put up for sale this summer as it shifted to a hybrid work model spurred by the pandemic.
Reserve Capital Partners on Tuesday bought the roughly 270,000-square-foot facility at 9903 Nationwide Drive in Westover Hills.
A Dallas investment fund has purchased Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.’s big West Side campus, which the company put up for sale this summer as it shifted to a hybrid work model spurred by the pandemic.
Reserve Capital Partners on Tuesday bought the roughly 270,000-square-foot facility at 9903 Nationwide Drive in Westover Hills.
The sale price was not available, but the 30.2-acre property was valued at $54.4 million by the Bexar Appraisal District. Nationwide will lease about 55,000 square feet there.
It is Reserve Capital’s first acquisition in San Antonio, though it has unsuccessfully tried to buy other large office properties in the city, said co-founder and partner Brant Landry. Trinity Private Equity Group of Southlake is its equity partner in the deal.
“We immediately liked it,” Landry said of the Nationwide site. “We’re one of the buyers that still believes in office and continuing to try to buy office, and we just felt like this was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The complex has a full-service cafeteria and a big conference center, among other amenities, Landry said. Reserve Capital plans to make some cosmetic upgrades and add outdoor games.
The ample space could be attractive to cybersecurity and health care companies or government operations, he said, and discussions are underway with a few potential tenants.
Nationwide’s employees started working remotely in March 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The next month the insurance and financial services company announced it would move to a hybrid workplace model.
At least half of its employees company-wide will permanently work remotely, so Nationwide is reducing its office space. San Antonio is one of four main corporate locations where the company said last year it would maintain work-from-office employees.
The West Side complex was built to accommodate 2,000 employees but had not been full for some time, the company said in June when it announced plans to sell the property. Nationwide employs more than 900 people locally.
“A small number of facilities and security jobs were impacted by the plans,” said spokesman Joe Case. “San Antonio continues to be a primary employment center for our company.”
It first expressed interest in 2006 in opening a “third headquarters” in San Antonio.
Nationwide then had 932 employees here and the city made the final list as the company conducted a search for the new location, which was to bring more than 800 new jobs. But the process then stopped and local officials were left wondering what was happening until 2008, when it resumed and San Antonio ultimately was selected.
The city of San Antonio and Bexar County each provided $500,000 and 10-year, 100 percent property tax abatements and the Texas Enterprise Fund kicked in $2.5 million worth of incentives. The campus opened in 2013.
Nationwide terminated its agreement with the state in 2011 and repaid what was owed with interest, Case said in June. The company is also ending its deals with the city and county and anticipates repaying about $1.2 million.