BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Health care powerhouse Aetna has quietly moved out of Bethlehem, shedding an office space it moved into just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Custom signs and company logos were removed over the weekend from the site at 1015 Club Ave., in the Lehigh Shopping Center near Union Boulevard.
- Aetna has moved out of its office space at 1015 Club Ave. in Bethlehem in the Lehigh Shopping Center
- In a statement, the company said it was taking steps to "streamline" its office footprint
- Aetna was the largest tenant in the shopping center owned by Brixmor Property Group
The remaining Aetna logo over the front door was dismantled on Monday, with the letters from the pylon sign piled on the front sidewalk Monday afternoon.
Sarah Ericksen, senior manager of corporate communications for CVS Health, provided the following statement to LehighValleyNews.com regarding the closure:
“As a company, we regularly evaluate our real estate portfolio to ensure our corporate office space is effectively and efficiently positioned to support our business while also balancing costs. Based on our latest review, we are taking several steps to streamline our office footprint and enhance our shared work experience by co-locating teams where possible and reducing excess office space at a few of our leased properties.”
CVS Health and Aetna were part of a $69 billion merger in the fall of 2018, and Aetna moved into the 83,512 square-foot location the following spring, relocating its South Whitehall Township call center – and hundreds of workers – to Bethlehem.
Published reports say the company — the largest tenant in the shopping center — had plans to nearly double its workforce with the move and aimed to employ nearly 800 people in Bethlehem. But on January 10, 2020, the World Health Organization announced the outbreak of coronavirus, and stay-at-home orders took effect in Pennsylvania two months later.
The building sat empty throughout the pandemic, and appeared to remain empty even as companies returned to office buildings earlier this year.
Aetna reportedly held a 10-year lease and was the largest tenant in the shopping center owned by Brixmor Property Group, which also features national retailers Big Lots, CitiTrends, Marshalls and PetSmart, along with a Giant grocery store.
According to the Brixmor website, the neighborhood shopping center draws an estimated 8,000 visits per day and nearly 3 million visits per year.
LehighValleyNews.com posed additional questions to Aetna regarding the number of workers employed in Bethlehem and where those workers would be relocated.
In an email, Ericksen did not specifically address the questions.
"Most colleagues began working from home successfully during the pandemic and will continue to do so," she said. "We are not prepared to make any additional comment at this time."
Kristen Moore, a spokesperson for Brixmor, also said in an email the company does not share details, such as term, of private lease agreements.
No WARN notice (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) has been filed with the state Department of Labor and Industry regarding the closure. WARN is a federal legislation that offers protection to workers by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of a covered-business closing or mass layoff.
