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Negrete, who moved into the building in March, is among several hundred employees who are singing the praises of their spacious new surroundings. He is also one of the first to admit that not all employees were thrilled at first to move to the new building after spending several years in the downtown area with its convenient skywalk system.
"A lot of people were apprehensive about coming out here," Negrete said. We lost the ability of going to as many different places as we could within two or three minutes."
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Executives at KVI knew they had some obstacles to overcome in moving most of the company's offices to the West Lake campus, so the company embarked on an innovative campaign to ease the transition.
Among the techniques they used were group tours of the new building and area, special offers from neighboring retailers and merchants, and discounts on rentals or home purchases to those who wanted to cut their commuting time by moving to the area.
The orientation was coordinated by Jackie Van Ahn, vice president of human resources. Van Ahn rented Metropolitan Transit Authority buses to take departments on tours of the building. By the time the excursions were finished, KVI employees not only knew about the closest retail shopping area, but exactly where their new cubicles would be located.
As she acted as tour guide, Van Ahn also gave each employee a packet full of discount coupons from retailers in the area, most of whom are Kirke-Van Orsdel clients.
"Of course, the clients! thought it was a great idea," Van Ahn said of the coupon packets. "Each one of them came up with something special where you just showed your employee ID or took in the coupon....