COLUMBIA − The city of Columbia is looking for a new lessee or owner of the former IBM/Kyndryl property on LeMone Industrial Boulevard.
The 93,145-square-foot facility, which is owned by the city, sits on 9.5 acres in an Industrial General Zone, according to a press release. The building is also a Leadership Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver-certified facility.
IBM is an international information technology corporation that uses tech to solve their business clients’ problems, according to the corporation’s website.
Kyndryl, an information technology service company, didn’t renew its lease, which expired on Oct. 31, city spokesperson Sydney Olsen said.
“They let us know a couple months ago, so we had some time to prepare,” Olsen said. “We knew this was coming.”
The company said it wasn’t using the office space due to its staff working remotely, Olsen said. Kyndryl, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment, didn’t say if any employees were laid off, according to Olsen.
On Friday, a notice of closure sign was posted outside of the building that said, “This site has been shut down. Decommission in process.”
Kyndryl employees do not have badge swipe access for any reason as of Sept. 29, the sign said.
In 2020, IBM said it was closing its Dubuque, Iowa, service center and moving operations to Columbia, the Columbia Missourian reported. There were 344 employees working at the Dubuque center, according to the Missourian.
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The company promised in 2010, when it initially announced it was opening shop in Columbia, that at least 800 jobs would be added in Columbia by the move. Employees earned a minimum average annual wage of $43,750.
In August 2023, the Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) confirmed to KOMU 8 News it was a target in a third-party data breach that happened with IBM and Progress Software’s MOVEit Transfer software. The department said the attack may have allowed an unauthorized party to access Medicaid participants’ health information.
IBM was a vendor that provided services to DSS, according to a news release from the department. Olsen said she does not believe there is a correlation between the data breach and Kyndryl leaving the office space.
The city is accepting proposals to lease or purchase the property from interested parties. Applications should include a five-page letter of interest with the following information:
- Name of company and its officers/owners
- Company address and/or location(s)
- Appropriate company point of contact information
- Brief history of the company
- Proposed lease or purchase terms; and, estimated price to purchase or lease the building/property
- Brief narrative about the intended use of the property, including but not limited to: proposed capital investment, job impacts, expansion/relocation, timeline to occupy, and any additional key terms or conditions for consideration
“[The building] has a lot of work space, it’s got a lot of meeting room,” Olsen said. “It could be potentially really beneficial for an employer that we may already have here in town or if someone expresses interested in coming [to] town, that’s a facility that could hold a lot of people.”
Applicants have until Nov. 27 to submit requests to lease or purchase the property, the release said. The city will notify finalists with qualified submissions by email or phone in December based on the following information:
- Highest and best use of the building/property
- Qualifications and experience of the company
- Financial ability to acquire or lease the building/property
- Timeline to occupy building/property
- Economic impact(s) to the community
“We want to continue to work on our economic development and building those relationships, bringing new jobs to Columbia or securing the jobs we already have,” Olsen said.