Merrill Lynch Plans $140M Operations Center

Citing security considerations in respect to "the sensitive nature of the operations that will take place in the facility," a Merrill Lynch spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that details regarding the seller and identities of the brokers who negotiated the transaction are undisclosed, although she confirmed it is in Bristol Industrial Park. GlobeSt.com has learned it is located at 35 Runway Rd. in the multi-building park, which is primarily occupied by logistics providers.

Refitting the facility is expected to take three years and provide as many as 200 construction-related jobs through 2007, when it becomes operational. No state or local incentives were given or sought, according to both Gov. Ed Rendell and Diane Schueneman, SVP of Merrill's global operations and infrastructure services. "It was just an ideal location for our purposes," Schueneman says. "The southeastern Pennsylvania area represented an ideal place for us to locate this important facility in terms of business environment, quality of life and proximity to headquarters facilities in New York and New Jersey," she adds in a statement.

The Bucks County center will bring the number of Merrill Lynch offices and facilities in Pennsylvania to 29. More than 2,000 Merrill employees live or work in the state. Its annual Pennsylvania payroll exceeds $215 million, according to Schueneman, and its private client business in this state encompasses approximately 500,000 individual and small business accounts representing more than $45 billion in customer assets. The Bristol Park building will provide resources for all Merrill business groups, including the global private client, global markets and investment banking and investment management groups.