JCPenney is back in business at its Plano headquarters following a $10 million renovation at the property. The revamp allows about 2,000 hybrid corporate employees to return to the office post-pandemic, after JCPenney left what’s now known as CALWest in Legacy business park during a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020. The national retailer was purchased by Simon Property Group and Brookfield a few months after filing.
JCPenney has been working out of a temporary office space for the past three years under CEO Marc Rosen, who took the retailer’s helm in 2021. “To be back in the permanent office is a sign of the strength of the company right now and the strength of what we’re seeing,” Rosen said. “As we’ve rebuilt the business, it’s also important to have a permanent place for us to be in a permanent home.”
Prior to the pandemic, JCPenney had held its headquarters at the 1.8 million-square foot Legacy business park in Plano since 1992. It’s new 320,000 square-foot lease spans the entirety of building B and part of building A on the CALWest campus, occupying three stories. It offers a number of amenities, including two pickleball courts, an arcade, several cafés and dining areas, a golf simulator, and an employee gym managed by Dallas-based Trophy Fitness.
“These things just let people take a more casual break from work and maybe have a little bit of fun to get to know each other a little bit more,” Rosen says.
The new space plan means all employees—even C-Suite executives—have an open office, and is meant to encourage collaboration, as are the many communal spaces throughout the headquarters. “The upper floors are all merchant collaboration space, design space, and layout space. It’s built with open space, so that people were accessible,” Rosen said. “Decision-making happens faster when you’re in that kind of environment.”
The renovation also celebrates JCPenney’s history. The area near the new visitors’ lobby showcases a timeline detailing events from the company’s 1902 founding by James Cash Penney in Kemmerer, Wyoming, under the name The Golden Rule, to its recent rollout expansion of JC Penney Beauty inside stores across the country. A painting of James Cash Penney is hung nearby and a cash register from one of the brand’s earliest stores also adorns the immediate area.
Addison based Scott and Reid Construction served as the contractor on the project, and Dallas-based Corgan served as the architect. The CALWest campus was acquired by Capital Commercial Investments in 2021 and is managed by CBRE.
Moving forward, Rosen says JCPenney is focused on continuing to revitalize the brand. “We’ve been focused on getting our stores and our merchandise assortment into the right place, which we feel really good about,” he said. “It’s about getting the team back into the office, and then, as we move forward, our next steps are going to be really reinvigorating our brand. You will see us come out with a a new brand campaign in the fall and a new way of really driving clarity as to why customers are shopping at JCPenney and why they should come to JCPenney.”
Author
