Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas Plans Move to New Headquarters; Larger Facility Able to House 1,000 More Employees at No Extra Cost

    RICHARDSON, Texas, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
 Texas (BCBSTX) has announced plans to lease office space in a new
 headquarters building that will enable the health insurer to house 1,000
 more employees than its current headquarters without any increase in
 leasing costs. BCBSTX is a division of Health Care Service Corporation
 (HCSC), which also operates the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in
 Illinois, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
     Dallas-based Koll Development Company (KDC) will build and own the new
 facility, and also will assume BCBSTX's existing lease obligation at its
 current 901 South Central Expressway location. Construction of the new
 facility, which will be located four miles north of the health insurer's
 current headquarters in Richardson, Texas, is expected to begin in the
 third quarter of 2007, with a targeted move-in date of early 2010.
     The new building will encompass approximately 1 million square feet of
 space on 34 acres at the northeast corner of North Central Expressway and
 Lookout Drive, enabling BCBSTX to consolidate the bulk of its 2,700 local
 employees into one location from four.
     "Bringing our Richardson and Dallas employees under one roof will allow
 us to gain significant workplace efficiencies for our core operations
 without any increase in our lease-related administrative costs," said
 Martin Foster, BCBSTX president. "This move also reflects our tremendous
 growth from 2 million members in 1998 to 3.4 million members today, and
 demonstrates our commitment to the city of Richardson."
     "For more than 25 years, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas has been a
 dominant presence in Richardson, and we are so proud that they have chosen
 to maintain their headquarters operations in our city," said Mayor Gary
 Slagel, City of Richardson. "The City of Richardson thanks our partners at
 Collin County and the Collin County Community College District for
 assisting us in creating the most desirable economic climate for this
 impressive campus development."
     "We are honored to have been selected to develop the new headquarters
 for such an outstanding organization," said Tobin Grove, president of KDC.
 "Together with the City of Richardson, The Staubach Company and Galatyn
 Properties, Ltd., we've worked diligently to meet all the needs of Blue
 Cross and Blue Shield of Texas."
     Jeff Ellerman and Mike Sessa of The Staubach Company are representing
 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas in the transaction. KDC has selected
 Dallas- based Corgan Architects, Inc. and Chicago-based zpd+a as project
 architects for the new building.
     Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas -- the only statewide,
 non-investor- owned health insurer in Texas -- is the largest provider of
 health benefits in the state, working with nearly 40,000 physicians and 400
 hospitals to serve 3.4 million members in all 254 counties. Blue Cross and
 Blue Shield of Texas is a division of Health Care Service Corporation
 (HCSC), the country's largest non-investor-owned health insurer and fourth
 largest health insurer overall. HCSC is a Mutual Legal Reserve Company and
 an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
 
 

SOURCE Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas