The Challenge
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company of Cleveland, Ohio, constructed a 130,000 square foot tri-state regional office in Annapolis, Maryland in two stages over the last 30 years.  As a result of improvements in technology, Nationwide Insurance was able to concentrate all of its claims processing in fewer facilities throughout the country.  As a result, the Annapolis claims facility, once home to as many as 700 employees, closed in 1996. 

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company contracted with MacKenzie to “mothball” the building, while it obtained approvals to redevelop the property as a mixed use Power Center.  Despite the TC (Town Center) zoning placed on the property, Anne Arundel County had earmarked the property for a landmark development. The County was unreceptive to Nationwide’s Power Center concept and, therefore, the concept, after nine months of preparation, was abandoned.

The Solution
After Nationwide’s Power Center redevelopment plan was rejected by the County, MacKenzie’s role with Nationwide expanded from simple property management to providing redevelopment, consulting and brokerage services.  MacKenzie worked with local architectural, engineering and environmental firms to compile a sales and redevelopment package which summarized the costs to redevelop the property as an office use in concert with the County Master Plan. With this information, MacKenzie was able to procure a buyer for the property within 30 days of listing the property for sale. MacKenzie marketed the property through its many resources including its website, its Internet listing site and local contacts.

The contract purchaser of the property lost its proposed financing for the property during the “credit crisis” in the Fall of 1998, and for the second time, the property was made available for sale on January 1, 1999.  MacKenzie, over the next three months, received a total of seven offers on the property. Nationwide accepted a contract to purchase the property from USinternetworking, Inc. at a record price of $11,750,000.00 ($90.40 per square foot), the highest price paid for a non-income producing office building in the Annapolis area in the previous decade.

Nationwide Mutial Insurance Company

Services Provided:
• Leasing & Sales
• Corporate Consulting & Strategic Planning
• Development Services
• Construction Services
• Property & Asset Management
• Financing
• Market Research
• Appraisal & Valuation Services
• Global Logistics