Fiserv, Inc. has reignited its search for a new corporate headquarters location, roughly four months after the company completed its acquisition of New York-based First Data Corp. in a $22 billion deal.
In May, the company said it had suspended the search for a new headquarters location in favor of focusing on its merger with First Data. However, Fiserv is now back on the hunt for a new headquarters site and a location could be identified in early 2020, Fiserv chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Yabuki said in an interview with BizTimes Milwaukee.
“We really wanted to make sure that we got off to a fast start,” Yabuki said of the business integration with First Data. “We’re just now picking up and looking at where we want to be based, how do we want to make sure we build out a platform that will allow us to attract the best and brightest people. I expect us to make that decision sometime in the early part of 2020.”
Fiserv currently has 700 employees at its Brookfield headquarters with another 300 scattered throughout the greater Milwaukee area, Yabuki said. Following the First Data acquisition, which closed on July 29, the Milwaukee area employee headcount is “slightly up,” he said.
“We will continue to view Milwaukee as one of our most important hubs,” Yabuki said. “We’re currently headquartered here (in the Milwaukee area) and we currently have no plans to change that.”
The company’s search for a new headquarters became public in 2017 when it issued an RFP looking for a 125,000-square-foot building. At the time, several developers made proposals to Fiserv for new headquarters developments in the metro Milwaukee area.
Sites the company considered included The Corridor in Brookfield, which is being developed by Milwaukee-based Irgens; the UWM Innovation Campus in Wauwatosa in a building that would be developed by Milwaukee-based Weas Development; Schlitz Park near downtown Milwaukee; and Reed Street Yards in Milwaukee.
BizTimes reported in August 2017 the company had narrowed its search to three sites locally, dropping Schlitz Park from consideration.
Last month, commercial real estate industry sources said Brown Deer-based manufacturer Rite-Hite is considering Reed Street Yards as a new location for its headquarters.
