OMAHA — The Union Pacific Corp. is going ahead with building its first-ever child-care center near its 19-story, $260 million downtown headquarters, which will be completed in 2004, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
Kathryn Blackwell, U.P.’s general director of corporate communications, said the Omaha-based railroad is looking at several downtown sites to build a 20,000-square-foot child-care center to accommodate up to 200 children, ages 6 weeks to 6 years old.
Building a day-care center is not something typically expected of a railroad where 94 percent of the 48,000 employees are men.
“When you have available money or capital, you’d normally put that into the operations of the rail or locomotive assets,” said Maureen Halbur, U.P.’s director of recruitment and leadership development. “This (child-care center) is not usually seen as a potential asset, but they think for long-term retention and recruiting, this is definitely where you’ll get a big payback.”
Union Pacific’s plan to build a child-care center was one reason the company made Working Mother magazine’s list of the 100 best U.S. companies for mothers who work, said Blackwell.
Other Midlands companies on the list include Mutual of Omaha, BryanLGH Medical Center in Lincoln and Principal Financial Group of Des Moines. All of the companies have programs designed to make it attractive for women to return to work after having children.
Union Pacific decided to go forward with the day-care center late last summer. It selected Boston-based Bright Horizons as the child-development provider in November, and RDG Schutte Wilscam Birge of Omaha as the architect in December.
Bright Horizons operates First National’s child-development center at 1425 Chicago St., AGP Grain Cooperative’s child-development center at 12700 West Dodge Road and the Omaha 2000 Early Childhood Education Center, 6908 Mercy Road. RDG designed the First National and AGP centers.
Union Pacific will be in charge of buying the land and constructing a building or buying an existing building and renovating it. U.P. also will underwrite the startup costs of the facility.
Day-to-day operation of the center will be left to Bright Horizons.
Halbur said Union Pacific hopes to pick a site within the next three months. Halbur and Blackwell would not say how many sites are being considered.
Halbur said U.P.’s real estate department has been looking for property to purchase within a 10-mile radius of its downtown headquarters, although the company wants the day-care center downtown. U.P.’s new headquarters will be built on the block bounded by Dodge, Douglas, 14th and 15th Streets.
She did not have an estimate on the cost of acquiring or constructing a building.
“I don’t know if we’d get a brand-new building,” she said.
There are not enough open lots downtown on which to build, Halbur said, so the company may choose to renovate an existing building.
Blackwell said the company selected a site at 15th and California Streets, a U.P. employee parking lot, but dropped it because it would be needed as a parking lot even after a new garage for employee parking at 13th and Dodge Streets opens.
“It was not an ideal location for a center,” she said.
Halbur credited Barbara Schaefer, U.P.’s senior vice president for human resources, with persuading Chairman and CEO Dick Davidson to go ahead with the child-care center. Arguments supporting the center included the growth of dual-income families, a changing work force and a resulting increased need for child care.
U.P. then formed a team of 10 to 12 employees from various departments who looked into a day-care proposal.
The team surveyed employees on whether they would be interested. Halbur said those who responded to the survey overwhelmingly said yes.
Architect Joe Lang of RDG said he doesn’t have specifics on Union Pacific’s center because the company is still selecting a site. He said his firm will design the center to match the site U.P. selects.
Ellen Freeman-Wakefield, director of First National Bank of Omaha’s child-development center downtown, said Bright Horizons’ philosophy is that children learn best when given the ability to select their own play activities within a certain curriculum.
On a walk around the First National center, Freeman-Wakefield showed where parents can spend time with their children. She also pointed out how the sinks, toilets and chairs are sized at the children’s height.
“There are no chairs at the teachers’ level,” she said.
Besides the shared philosophy, the First National center and the U.P. center will have some design similarities. First National’s $3.7 million facility is licensed for 220 children ages 6 weeks old to 6 years old.
Lang said Union Pacific would have a specially designed feature at its center that may be connected to its rail history.
Halbur added: “My personal opinion, being a mother and finding day care, is a company getting into this is a wonderful idea,” she said. “It takes off the table the hassle of scrambling to find day care.”