Paycor to move to Downtown Cincinnati's old Saks building

Paycor will move into office space inside downtown Cincinnati's former Saks building, a positive sign for the city's urban core where leaders are working to attract workers to bring vibrancy during daytime hours.

The human capital management software company will become the site's future anchor tenant, taking up 40,000 square feet on the second floor, Joe Rudemiller, spokesman for the Cincinnati Center City Development, Corp., also known as 3CDC, told The Enquirer.

Located at 101 W. Fifth Street, the old Saks property is a key part of Downtown's vitality because of its proximity to Fountain Square and The Foundry. The Saks building has sat vacant since the luxury retailer left at the end of 2022. The city of Cincinnati purchased the 80,000-square-foot building from Saks Fifth Avenue for $3 million early last year.

"You could not imagine a more perfect outcome for the old Saks building," said Brendon Cull, President of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. "Paycor's new headquarters Downtown will bring people, new small businesses, and economic activity to a crucial corner Downtown."

Details about the future tenants have been sparse until now, but renderings released in March revealed that the renovated structure will house offices, retail and a restaurant.

The total construction project is expected to cost $30 million. Paycor is slated to move in by summer of 2025.

Norwood-based Paycor went public in 2021 in a $426 million initial public stock offering. Paycor provides small and medium-sized businesses with human resources and payroll software. Founder and former chairman Bob Coughlin started Paycor in 1990. It has 29,000 customers and employs 2,100.

What about Paycor's Norwood campus?

Paycor has operated out of a 136,000-square-foot building in Norwood at 4811 Montgomery Road since May 2014. The company also bought the naming rights to the former Paul Brown Stadium, just a few blocks away from its new offices.

"We were really happy about our partnership with Norwood," said Adam Ante, Paycor's chief financial officer. "Unfortunately, it just doesn't fit our business needs now ... We're really excited to stay in Cincinnati and get downtown. It's really good for us, for our brand, and the employees and investors who will visit."

Paycor and Norwood in February terminated a 15-year agreement in which the city offered Paycor incentives based on the amount of wages Paycor paid its employees. Paycor agreed to repay Norwood $2.25 million over a four-year period.

"A dispute arose between the company and city with respect to the company's outstanding obligations," the termination agreement approved by Norwood City Council says.

Since the pandemic, Paycor has taken a "virtual-first" approach to working from home, meaning many of its employees don't visit its Norwood campus often. Ante said the company considered renovating its current building but decided to downsize instead.

The company's new space on Fifth Street will serve as a hub for training, monthly and quarterly corporate events and hosting associates from across the country. It will also have over 100 individual workstations for employees who want to work there full- or part-time. A second-floor balcony overlooking the corner of Race and Fifth Streets will provide views of Fountain Square and double as extra event space.

"We really liked the size and the cool location in the central business district," Ante said. "Plus, we liked that we could build our offices from scratch with the ideas [the design team] has in mind."

Cincinnati-based firms GBBN and Hixson are leading the exterior and interior architectural projects respectively.

Paycor the latest big company to move to the Central Business District

The city's attempt to revitalize the convention center district around Fountain Square rests partially on its success attracting companies back Downtown. 3CDC is helping to lead that charge on behalf of the city administration through office conversion projects like this one at the old Saks building and the 2022 completion of the Foundry building.

"None of this would have happened without 3CDC's leadership," Cull said.

Turner Construction, Deloitte and Divisions Maintenance Group are among the Foundry building's major tenants. Adding Paycor to the Saks building next door will add even more daytime foot traffic to Downtown during the week.

"This is what we envisioned for this property and is exactly in line with what we envision for our urban core,” said Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati company Paycor moving into Downtown's old Saks building