55 workers will move from Erie Boulevard to AXA Towers.
MVP Health Care announced Thursday it has moved 55 jobs into the Axa Tower 2 building in Syracuse. Syracuse, N.Y. -- MVP Health Care officials say they hope to help revitalize a dormant section of downtown Syracuse by moving the health insurance company’s 55-employee Syracuse office to AXA Towers.
The company has moved into about 15,000-square-feet of office space on the 10th floor of AXA Tower 2. The operation was previously located 620 Erie Boulevard West.
“In Syracuse we know there is momentum afoot to revitalize the city center,” said David Oliker, president and CEO of the Schenectady-based insurer. “We want to keep that momentum going and we want to do it in an area that’s not improving as fast as the rest of downtown. We want to see Warren Street become a bustling business district.”
He and other company officials discussed MVP’s move at a news conference today. MVP has more than 700,000 members in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.
As part of the move, MVP officials said the company has entered into an agreement with the city to “adopt” a pocket park at South Warren and East Fayette streets. Employees will plant flowers and pick up litter in the park. The company also announced its employees have donated more than $1,000 to the McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Site, a local program that works with victims of child abuse.
Oliker said MVP helped transform downtown Schenectady when it built a new corporate headquarters there in 2002. He said MVP took a similar approach in Manchester, N.H. where it occupies space in a converted warehouse in a revitalized area. “We think that’s a good model to work from and we have extended that to Syracuse,” Oliker said.
MVP’s local office handles sales and administers dental plans, flexible benefits and COBRA insurance.
Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, praised MVP’s move and noted that a new federally-funded Centro bus depot is being built nearby on South Warren Street. “Hopefully some of your customers and personnel will be able to leave their cars at home,” Maffei said.