A 30-year-old daycare in northern Sioux Falls will be a casualty of Citi's planned move to a new campus on the other side of the city.
For decades, the Bright Horizons Family Care Center has provided child care for employees of Citi and Sanford Health. But the daycare is set to close in 2019, in conjunction with Citi's move from its existing campus at 701 E. 60th Street to a yet-unbuilt facility located along the interchange of Interstates 29 and 229.
The daycare runs at about half capacity, said Citi spokesman Mark Rodgers.
“Historically, the child care center at our site has been underutilized,” Rodgers said. "We are considering different options to assist our employees who may be impacted by this decision."
The Family Care Center, which also serves Sanford Health employees, can provide care for up to 450 children from six weeks old through fifth grade. Open from 6:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m., it also serves as a backup option for working parents if their main child care provider is closed or unavailable, according to the center's website.
The daycare was expanded in 1997, amid the heyday of Sioux Falls’ once-booming financial sector. But the city’s financial services industry has waffled since the Great Recession and shed hundreds of jobs in recent years.
A representative for Bright Horizons said the Massachusettes-based daycare company is interested in exploring other options for Citi's Sioux Falls employees, if possible.
“The move is quite some time from now so we are in the process of exploring options that may allow us to continue to operate," spokeswoman Bridget Perry said. "However, in order to do that, we would need employer support and collaboration with the landlord.”
Citi, which had $69.9 billion in net revenue last fiscal year, is one of Sioux Falls’ biggest employers. It says it has 1,800 workers in Sioux Falls area – 1,600 onsite and 200 who work from home.
Citi announced in November plans to build a new 150,000-square-foot "state of the art" Sioux Falls operations facility. It later announced it had picked the site for the facility – Interstate Crossing Business Park southwest of the intersection of 57th Street and Louise Avenue and just north of I-229.
The buildings Citi is vacating in northeast Sioux Falls are on the real estate market for lease.
List of city's top employers as of January 2017 Wochit
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