Blackbaud Inc. opened its new world headquarters on Daniel Island on Wednesday, a four-story building in the Berkeley County community where the software company has operated since 2000.
The company unveiled the 172,000-square-foot workplace and innovation center at a ribbon-cutting ceremony just over two years after it announced plans for the project in 2016, Blackbaud said. The building on Fairchild Street will house nearly half of the company’s workforce.
“With our new headquarters, we’re making a generational investment in the very community that supported us since well before we went public 14 years ago, while also launching the world’s most creative workspace to cultivate innovation at the intersection of technology and social good,” CEO Mike Gianoni said in the company’s announcement.
“From dedicated labs for disruptive innovation, to modern engineering spaces, to leading-edge technology that connects our global workforce like never before, we’re positioned to do what we do,” he said, adding that the company would now do it “bigger, better and faster.”
Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and Nelson Lindsay, director of global business development for the S.C. Department of Commerce, joined company officials at the ceremony, Blackbaud said.
What is inside
Blackbaud said the building is LEED-certified and was designed around what matters most to employees. Its features include a healthy dining cafe with local vendors, ergonomic furniture, a game room and an outdoor activities center.
“Behind all great companies are great people, so it’s our top priority to make Blackbaud a place that attracts and retains top talent in the industry,” said John Mistretta, executive vice president of human resources.
The building also houses the new Blackbaud Innovation Center, a meeting space for customers, partners and community leaders. Blackbaud said the space will support programs such as Camp Blackbaud, an employee-led program that teaches elementary school children to design and code, and will eventually be available to nonprofits that need meeting and event space.
To mark the opening, the company gave $25,000 to the Dee Norton Child Advocacy Center for its new facility on the Cainhoy peninsula.
A leased campus with room for more
Blackbaud does not own the building. Atlanta-based developer Holder Properties agreed to build the campus and lease it to the company, The NonProfit Times reported when the project was announced in May 2016.
The lease runs 20 years from the date the landlord substantially completes construction and ends in the first half of 2038, with four five-year renewal options, according to Blackbaud’s most recent annual report. The company estimated total rent payments for the first phase at about $104.2 million over the life of the lease, plus $13.9 million in leasehold improvement allowances.
The site covers 13 acres at the corner of Fairchild and Central Island streets, REBusinessOnline reported in 2016. The first phase includes the four-story building and a 650-space surface parking lot, with room for up to 175,000 more square feet of office space in a second phase. Balfour Beatty was named general contractor and ASD the architect, the publication reported. Construction began in October 2016.
The lease gives Blackbaud an option to ask the landlord to build and lease it a second office building, the annual report says.
Blackbaud also expects to receive quarterly South Carolina incentive payments for locating the new headquarters in Berkeley County, which it will record as a reduction of rent expense, according to the report.
The old headquarters
The new building is about a mile from Blackbaud’s longtime headquarters at 2000 Daniel Island Drive, The NonProfit Times reported in 2016. Blackbaud leases about 218,000 square feet there under a lease that runs through October 2023, with two five-year renewal options, according to its annual report.
Blackbaud planned to stay in its existing offices until each new building was ready, The NonProfit Times reported in 2016.
Jobs and growth
When it announced the project, Blackbaud said it would create 300 high-tech jobs over five years. The company said Wednesday that it is actively recruiting and expects to add positions as the project progresses.
Blackbaud had 3,182 employees worldwide at the end of 2017, and its revenue that year was $788.3 million, up 7.9% from 2016, according to its annual report. The company sells fundraising, financial management, school management and other software to nonprofits, foundations, schools and companies’ social responsibility programs.
Blackbaud says it is the largest publicly traded software company headquartered in South Carolina, and it describes itself as the world’s 24th largest cloud software company.
