IDA seeks to keep Towers Perrin in county

 

Westchester County officials hope to keep a merging professional services company and 180 jobs in the county if the company decides to move its office operations in Valhalla next year.

The county Industrial Development Agency last week gave its preliminary approval to a straight-lease deal at 44 S. Broadway in the White Plains central business district with Towers, Perrin, Forster and Crosby Inc. A spokesman said the company is exploring several options, including staying in Valhalla, when at the end of 2010 its lease expires at 100 Summit Lake Drive in the Reckson Summit office park.

A consultant to Towers Perrin last week told IDA officials the company is looking to relocate either to White Plains or to Stamford, Conn. The company”™s world headquarters are at One Stamford Plaza. The office choice will be made in late August or early September.

Towers Perrin would lease about 40,000 square feet at 44 S. Broadway, the 850,000-square-foot Westchester One building owned by Boston, Mass.-based Beacon Capital Partners L.L.C. The company leases 50,000 square feet in Valhalla, said spokesman Joseph P. Conway.

Towers Perrin directors last month agreed to a merger with Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc., a publicly traded professional services company based in Arlington, Va. The pending deal, which requires Securities and Exchange Commission and shareholder approval, has an implied equity value of about $3.5 billion.

The new public listed company, Towers Watson & Co., will have annual revenues expected to exceed $3 billion. The more efficient combined operations are expected to yield about $80 million in pretax annual savings after three years. The companies expect the consolidation to cost about $80 million. 

              
Watson Wyatt CEO John Haley will serve the combined company as CEO, while Towers Perrin CEO Mark Mactas will serve as president.

Conway said the proposed merger should not affect Tower Perrin”™s real estate decision here.