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Week of May 26, 2005 |
| Transit firm Ryder moves into new global headquarters
By Armie Margaret Lee Transportation company Ryder System is ready to unveil new global headquarters at Beacon Station business park. Ryder, which for decades had occupied its own 400,000-square-foot building at 3600 NW 82nd St., made the move to a smaller facility to enable easier interaction among its employees, said David Bruce, group director of corporate communications. Last year, the company sold the five-story building it occupied since 1973 to Shoma Development for $38 million. It leased back the property from Shoma until the relocation. Ryder's new home, a 250,000-square foot, four-story facility leased from Flagler Development Corp., is at 11690 NW 105th St., about 7 miles from the company's former site. Although the headquarters was downsized, Mr. Bruce said, the company's workforce was not trimmed. Ryder currently has about 700 employees. "There was a lot of wasted space in our old site," he said of the 46.5-acre property. A Fortune 500 company formed in Miami in 1933, Ryder once had seven business units operating from its Doral headquarters, but many of those divisions were sold in the 1990s, so the company requires less office space. Ryder scouted for potential sites in Miami-Dade and Broward before finally settling on the Doral site, Mr. Bruce said. The new location, he said, "allows for a more collaborative work environment. We also wanted to avoid a significant disruption in the commuting pattern of our employees." |
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