Allstate Open New Belfast Headquarters

Belfast Lord Mayor, Councillor Deirdre Hargey, has attended the officially opening of Allstate Northern Ireland's new Belfast headquarters.

The new building houses Allstate employees providing technology, cybersecurity, business and accountancy services to its parent company, the Allstate Corporation, one of the largest publicly owned property and casualty insurance companies in the U.S.

Councillor Hargey said: "We made a commitment in The Belfast Agenda to attract investment to the city, to foster business growth and to make it easy to do business here. We're also focusing on creating more and better jobs for our people so that they can fulfil their potential. So we're delighted to see Allstate investing in such an innovative workplace which absolutely reflects their world-class, forward-looking values.

"I'm so pleased to see Allstate, one of our first major IT inward investors, flourishing here, and demonstrating such commitment to Belfast and our people. They've tapped into the wealth of talent that our workforce provides and at the same time, they're helping to put this city on the international map as a fantastic place to do business."

Suren Gupta, Executive Vice President, Allstate Technology and Strategic Ventures, added: "This investment in a modern new workplace is part of our corporate business transformation, which is focused on innovating to better serve our customers."

John Healy, Managing Director of Allstate NI, also said: "The building delivers a stimulating, collaborative working environment for employees. The impressive design fits the requirements of our world-class organisation and supports our outstanding employees in defining, delivering and maintaining technology now and for the future."

Allstate Northern Ireland was founded in January 1999 and has employees over three locations in Belfast, Derry~Londonderry and Strabane. The new Allstate building represents an investment of tens of millions of pounds and sustained 150 construction jobs for two years.

The new building, between Belfast Central railway station and the River Lagan, spans over 140,000 square feet of Grade A office space and has resulted in extensive refurbishment of the towpath, adjacent boat marina and a restaurant unit at ground level.

The headquarters, which span six floors, include large, sociable working spaces, a restaurant, break-out areas, outdoor terrace and high-tech software development labs, were completed in two years.

(MH)