Erie Insurance Plans New $135M Office Building

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Erie Indemnity Co.’s new 6th Street building, Erie, Pa., rendering

Erie, Pa.—Albert Kahn Associates and construction manager PJ Dick are developing a $135 million, 346,000-square-foot office building on the Erie Insurance Home Office campus in downtown Erie for Erie Indemnity Co.

“The building itself is located physically between two structures we recently finished—one being our Heritage Center and the other our technical learning center—and it fits right into our campus and fills in a gap in our organization,” Jeff Brinling, Erie Insurance’s senior vice president, corporate services, told Commercial Property Executive. “It’s connected to the Heritage Center, which was the first owned office of our company, from 1938 until 1956. There’s a clear connection to our past.”

The building will include four larger floors and three smaller tower floors. The new property is targeting LEED certification and will feature large collaboration areas, an open courtyard and bridges connecting to other ERIE buildings and parking ramps.

“The building will feature a lot of open, large floor plates, which will allow us some flexibility,” Brinling said. “Sustainability for our organization represents not only an efficiently designed building but also one that is efficiently operated, and we have been very supportive of sustainable efforts around the organization, and this is the right thing to do.”

It will be the largest construction on ERIE’s campus, housing up to 1,200 employees. There will also be a small grab-and-go space attached for people on the run, and a cafeteria will be in a separate location on the campus.

The office property will be located on East Sixth Street, extending to East Seventh and French streets. Construction is expected to begin next spring with an anticipated end date of sometime in 2020.

According to A.M. Best Company, Erie Insurance Group is the 10th largest homeowners insurer and 12th largest automobile insurer in the U.S., based on direct premiums written and the 15th largest property/casualty insurer in the U.S., based on total lines net premium written.

Image courtesy of Erie Indemnity Co.