University in downtown Tucson closes as staff chooses remote work

Citing employee preference to permanently work from home, a downtown university has terminated its office lease with Pima County.

Southern New Hampshire University opened the new campus in February 2020, just a month before Arizona Governor Doug Ducey issued stay-at-home order in response to the pandemic.

The 10-year-lease with the county-owned building at 97 E. Congress St. was terminated June 1.

Lauren Keane, associate vice president of communication for the university, said more than 90% of employees of the Tucson campus expressed the desire to continue working remotely.

The private university had about 100 people in Tucson, including student-support staff, academic advisers, financial aid workers, admissions representatives and IT support to serve online students in Western time zones.

“The university is still fully committed to the community of Tucson, which has become ingrained into the fabric and culture of SNHU,” Keane said. “We will continue to hire in Tucson and in other western states to best serve our learners in those areas.”

Prior to the pandemic, SNHU expected to outgrow the space at 97 E. Congress St. so an early termination clause was included in the initial lease to allow early termination on Aug. 31, 2024.

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The county is also renovating its building at 130 W. Congress St. and could absorb the space vacated by SNHU, county officials said.

The university offered to pay the county a termination fee of $900,000 and $72,360.48 for rents and fees for the months of April and May and vacate the building before June 1, according to a memo to the Board of Supervisors from Jan Lesher, the county administrator.

“In addition, SNHU plans to leave furniture, fixtures and some equipment … to Pima County to help reduce their shipping costs of these items,” the memo says. “These items and other construction renovations paid by SNHU were valued at approximately $750,000 when purchased new.”

The total revenue loss — the rent that will not be paid to the county from June 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2024 — comes to $1.5 million, county records show.

SNHU’s situation is not unique.

According to the Pew Research Center, for employees whose jobs can be done remotely, the majority prefer to continue working from home.

“Today, more workers say they are doing this by choice rather than necessity,” Pew says. “Among those who have a workplace outside of their homes, 61% now say they are choosing not to go into their workplace.”