Air Products to relocate its global headquarters
July 19, 2018
Air Products’ new global headquarters will be in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania (Courtesy Air Products)
Air Products, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, has announced that it will begin construction on its new global headquarters in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, close to its existing location. The new headquarters will be based on a fifty acre site and the company expects to break ground in March 2019, with completion targeted for Summer 2021.
The new headquarters will be occupied by approximately 2,000 employees, and include capacity for future growth. Seifi Ghasemi, Air Products’ Chief Executive Officer, stated, “From the beginning of this process to develop a new headquarters facility, we have never wavered in our commitment to remain in the Lehigh Valley. Now, we have made the location decision and we begin our preparations to build facilities that represent our world-class company. This is a very exciting time for Air Products as we evolve our headquarters environment to be more beneficial to our employees and take advantage of sustainable technologies to lessen our footprint and reduce operating costs.”
As it continues to focus strongly on Industrial Gases, Air Products has divested a number of non-core businesses over the last two years. These moves, in combination with other operational changes, are said to have resulted in excess building space at Air Products’ present location, compounded by annual maintenance costs of approximately $20 million on the sixty-year-old building. A cost estimate for the new site has not been disclosed at this time. It will include the company’s new administration offices, a Research and Development (R&D) facility and an enclosed parking structure for employees.
“The decision to leave our current headquarters location, with its rich history, was not one we made lightly,” stated Ghasemi. “But we believe our new location will afford us a special opportunity to modernise and optimise our office space and R&D facilities and invest in a work environment that motivates and energises our employees. As a global company operating in more than fifty countries, this new headquarters will reflect the safety, speed, simplicity and self-confidence that move us forward as a world-leading industrial gas company.”
