ServiceMaster rolls out welcome mat for first 180 employees of global service center Downtown

The first 180 ServiceMaster employees reported to the company’s new global service center in Downtown Memphis on Monday morning.

The leading edge of an eventual 1,200 Downtown workers capped a nearly two-year, $35 million project to bring ServiceMaster’s Memphis home office under one roof.

Several gave stellar reviews to One ServiceMaster Center, what company officials believe is a one-of-a-kind achievement: a vacant former shopping and entertainment mall, Peabody Place, converted into top-tier office space.

“Very excited. A lot of color. A lot of sunlight. Very big. I think it might take a while to get the feel of things around here,” said Michelle Simkin, 33, a creative design specialist.

More: ServiceMaster renovation turns page into future on Peabody Place's past

Justin Guthrie, 34, manager of pricing analytics, said, “It’s pretty awesome. It’s very new age. Very trendy. Definitely a lot cleaner and brighter than the Ridgeway location.”

Guthrie made the comment while unpacking boxes and logging on to his computer at a stand-up desk, a feature shared by all of the center’s 1,385 work stations.

Company officials are banking on the urban setting and state-of-the-art design helping them recruit technologically savvy and creative millennials.

Taylor Oaks, 27, who works on web content production, said the new center was part of what drew him to ServiceMaster from an advertising and public relations firm.

"I've been waiting for this for the last year and a half. It was definitely one of the factors in me wanting to work here," Oaks said.

Downtown welcomed the arrival of new office workers, who officials hope will become patrons of restaurants and other businesses and potentially new residents. Recruiting new office tenants has been a priority in recent years.

"It feels really good to see the building back in full and active use — this adaptive reuse was one of the most creative and positive for our Downtown community," said Jennifer Oswalt, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission.

"We have enjoyed working with ServiceMaster's leadership in preparation for their employees moving in, and we look forward to our office campus growing. We also believe the ServiceMaster employees are going to love the access to Downtown restaurants, retail, yoga, parks and very soon Explore Bike Share," Oswalt said.

ServiceMaster was cleared to occupy the 300,000-square-foot service center Friday, just in time for Ewing Moving & Storage to move computers and boxes of employees' personal items Downtown over the weekend.

Employees were supposed to report Downtown at 8:30 a.m., but many arrived early, and some even tested commuting routes over the weekend, company officials said.

Arriving workers parked free in the 250 Peabody Place parking garage and walked across a pedestrian bridge to the center’s second-floor entrance.

Bethany McRae, 30, an email marketing specialist for American Home Shield, said the move means “a shorter commute for me because I live in the Midtown area. I’m looking forward to being able to shoot straight down Union and connect with the Downtown community.”

Marketing, communications and finance employees were among those in the first wave. The move will continue with groups of employees arriving weekly through March 26.

Roseanne Guy, 57, an executive administrator who worked for a law firm Downtown before joining the home services company in 1994, said, “To me, it’s been like coming home. There are so many exciting things Downtown has now that it didn’t have then. It’s just a phenomenal space.”

By midmorning, only two boxes had turned up missing, out of several hundred, causing Guy to declare, “I would be surprised if everybody isn’t working by this afternoon.”

The departure from multiple buildings in the Ridgeway Center area comes just in time for Thomas & Betts to occupy ServiceMaster’s soon-to-be-vacated headquarters in April.

ServiceMaster announced in June 2016 it would spurn offers to move out of the city and instead relocate to Peabody Place. The move was enticed by public incentives that totaled $24.2 million for the company and its Downtown landlord, Belz Enterprises.

First-day activities included a safety orientation and a stroll to the nearest fire exit and out of the building. There were Gibson’s Donuts with ServiceMaster blue icing and welcome kits containing postcards of the new center, area maps, restaurant discounts and a mug with the new One ServiceMaster Center logo.

Chief Marketing Officer Marvin Davis and Terry Ingram, vice president of supply chain, greeted employees assembled in the light-filled first-floor atrium for the first time.

Davis, 53, said his commute went from a 25-minute drive to an eight-minute walk.

“I’m a Downtowner,” Davis said.

Davis called the new center “an incredible space” that will be good for ServiceMaster and the city. It’s also historic, he said.

“We can’t find an example anywhere in the world where a mall was converted into Class A office space,” Davis said.

Reach Wayne Risher at wayne.risher@commercialappeal.com or (901) 529-2874.