Portland-based Wex Inc. has cancelled its plans to expand into a new $50 million office building at The Downs in Scarborough.
The payment-processing tech company announced on Thursday that it came to this decision considering the post-pandemic “changing work environment”. Most of Wex’s 1,200 employees are working from home and will either continue to do so or will go for a hybrid work model.
In early 2021, Wex had said that they expect most employees to return to office by summer. The company has offices in two buildings in South Portland and two on the Portland waterfront. Later, this date of return to office was shifted to the end of 2021.
The company is analyzing how many employees will work in-office full-time, how many will prefer to go for a hybrid work schedule and how many will continue with full time remote work. Only after more clarity, Wex will take a decision on how to move forward.
As of now, the staff is expected to coordinate with their reporting managers to discuss their future work schedules.
According to Wex’s Vice President for global real estate, Safet Conan, the company no longer sees a need for any more office space at the moment.
As per Cobaj, the company is in the phase of taking “a pause to make a more informed decision about what new office spaces should look like in the future.”
Earlier, the company had anticipated the move of around a 1,000 employees to the new Scarborough office within a year.
Wex has 5,435 full-time employees worldwide. 1,216 of the staff works in Maine.
“We understand that Wex’s post-pandemic office needs have changed, and fortunately their decision doesn’t impact our overall plans for The Downs,”Peter Michaud, Managing Partner, The Downs
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