Manekin, LLC has completed phase one construction on the corporate headquarters building it developed for Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing database marketing agencies. The construction completes the first of an overall two-phase, $65 million project.
Located at 7001 Columbia Gateway Dr. in Columbia, the new Merkle headquarters is a five-story 120,000- square-foot Class A office building situated on 7.7 acres of land. The pre-cast concrete and glass structure includes office space for up to 580 employees, as well as a 10,000-square foot, state-of-the-art data center.
A two-story glass curtain wall section extends through part of the lobby, conference rooms, work space, “huddle rooms” and café area. Amenities include wireless access throughout the building, a plasma television on each floor, a first-floor coffee bar, company store, second-floor gym and a third-floor outside rooftop terrace.
The building also contains many sustainable design features, including a high efficiency HVAC system, gray roof and occupancy sensors. Manekin Construction was the builder, Design Collective, Inc. the architect, STUDIO B2SJ, the interior design firm and GLW-Gutschick, Little & Weber, P.A. the civil engineer.
“We are excited to have moved into our new headquarters,” said Don Patrick, Chief Operating Officer, Merkle. “Our new state-of-the-art location on Gateway Drive provides much needed room to expand our employee headcount. We are looking forward to our future growth in Howard County.”
Merkle currently employs more than 1,100 staff members throughout the country, of which approximately 450 work at the new Columbia headquarters. Plans call for significantly increasing its staff and filling the building to capacity in the next two years. Merkle plans to expand by an additional 350 employees when an optional 70,000-square-foot building is complete.
“Having Merkle relocate to Columbia Gateway is great for Howard County, and we are pleased that Merkle has demonstrated their confidence in Manekin as a developer and builder,” said Cole Schnorf, Manekin’s senior vice president/director of development.