Richardson’s business leaders and area community officials gathered at Galatyn Park’s Lookout Drive for the official groundbreaking ceremony of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas’ new campus headquarters. Located directly north of the Renaissance Hotel and the Eisemann Center, the 16-acre site will be home to a new 15-story high rise office building adjoined to a second building which will total over 1.1 million square feet.

The headquarters will be built by Koll Development and is the largest single corporate headquarters office complex in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in almost 20 years, receiving the Dallas Business Journal’s “Best Real Estate Deal of the Year in 2006” award.

Richardson Chamber of Commerce CEO Bill Sproull welcomed all the guests and kicked off the groundbreaking program. He was followed by Steve Mitchell, the mayor of Richardson who officially welcomed BCBS to Galatyn Park and thanked all the participants as well as other city council members who were present.

Martin Foster, the president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas thanked the chamber, the City of Richardson, Collin County officials and Galatyn Park executives for their leadership and involvement in keeping BCBS in Richardson.

Richardson city manager Bill Keffler highlighted the significant impact of BCBS on the city and the high level of involvement of the corporation and their employees in all facets of the community. He was followed by John Creecy, president and CEO of Hunt Petroleum, owners of Galatyn Park who recognized Don Dillard, who has oversight of Galatyn Park, and their efforts to make Galatyn Park a high quality development. He thanked the various public entities who worked with them to bring the key elements which make Galatyn Park one of most outstanding developments in the metroplex: the two DART stations, the elegant Renaissance Hotel, one of the premier venues in North Texas, The Eisemann Center for Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations, and attracting key employers such Nortel, Countrywide, Samsung’s Wireless HQ, and now BC&BS.

Finally, Tobin Gove, President of Koll Development led the group in the actual formal groundbreaking.

Blue Cross Blue Shield began in Dallas in the late 1920’s and by 1980, they had moved their headquarters to the 26 acre site in Richardson at Spring Valley and Central Expressway. To meet the growing demands of the company, additional space at 2400 Lakeside was leased.

The new campus is scheduled to be ready in spring of 2010 and will accommodate the anticipated growth from their current 2500+ employees to over 5,000.