Belk corporate employees to work remotely following changes at Charlotte headquarters
Belk is planning to sublease its Charlotte headquarters on West Tyvola Road, the company confirmed late Tuesday.
That moves helps the Charlotte-based department store chain shift corporate employees to remote work full time or part time, Belk said.
Like other big companies in Charlotte, Belk is considering mixing office and remote work following more than a year of office employees teleworking during the coronavirus pandemic.
As of February, Belk had about 1,200 corporate office employees.
Productivity and communications improved during COVID-19, company spokeswoman Jessica Rohlik told the Observer, and employees “overwhelmingly” support working from home.
“We were able to adapt and innovate, and have strategically shifted our home office workforce to continue working predominantly remotely,” Rohlik said.
CoStar, a commercial real estate industry publication, first reported the news.
Belk also is considering using excess space in local stores for meeting rooms and offices, Rohlik said, which will help corporate employees work more closely with store products and customers.
The majority of corporate employees will work remotely, Rohlik said, and no layoffs are planned as a result of the transition.
The Belk headquarters
Belk signed a 15-year lease on its property at 2801 W. Tyvola Road in 2016. At that time, some corporate employees were consolidated into one of its buildings into a 475,000-square-foot space.
Last July, Belk cut an undisclosed number of jobs, mostly at its headquarters. This followed 80 corporate jobs cut five months earlier.
Other changes at Belk
Belk also made other corporate leadership changes this month, including naming Nir Patel as CEO.
Lisa Harper, who had been the CEO since July 2016, is now executive chair of the Belk Board of Directors.
The company has 17,000 employees and 291 department stores in 16 Southeast states.
Belk bankruptcy and reemergence
Belk, owned by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, filed for and emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. The Belk family sold the department store to Sycamore in 2015 for $3 billion.
When the pandemic hit last year, the 133-year-old department store was facing a $2 billion debt load and declining store sales.
The bankruptcy plan was approved within 24 hours, cutting its debt load by about $450 million, the Observer previously reported.
The company said then it planned to keep all of its stores open.
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 6:25 AM with the headline "Belk corporate employees to work remotely following changes at Charlotte headquarters."