Steve Silberman surveys the sparsely populated day care center adjacent to his company’s Pittsburgh area offices and talks confidently about years to come when he envisions the facility brimming with infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
Silberman, who bucked pressures to eliminate the $200,000 center when American Thermoplastic Co. built its new $7 million headquarters last year, considers the day care facility critical to luring new employees in an era of dual-income families and single parents.
“It’s one of the first things I knew I wanted to do when we were building this facility,” he said during a tour of the brightly decorated center that features white walls with lilac trim, blue carpet and a fish tank donated by Silberman, the company president.
Experts point to Thermoplastic’s decision to incorporate a day care center in its facility as an example of what increasing numbers of employers and office landlords will be forced to consider in coming years to accommodate the needs of working parents.
“Employers have finally realized that the care of employees’ children has a direct effect on employees’ productivity and it’s an issue they have to deal with,” said Dean Bailey, a Dallas-based consultant who tries to match companies and landlords with child care providers.
An ordinance adopted by Pittsburgh City Council in 1992 calls for all new office facilities of at least 90,000 square feet, or approximately nine floors, to contain day care centers for building employees.
Among the first to be built in compliance with the ordinance is a day care center that will service employees of Union Switch & Signal at the Pittsburgh Technology Center in Hazelwood. The Regional Industrial Development Corp. is developing Union Switch’s building and will erect a day care facility nearby that could in the future accommodate children of other firms that locate at the technology park, said Ken Britz of RIDC.
Thermoplastic, a privately held firm that had sales of $13 million last year and employs 160, according to Standard & Poor’s, moved into its new headquarters in January and opened the day care center in April.
Recent enrollment stood at one full-time child and three part- time children. The center, operated by Louise Child Care, is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and has capacity for 30 to 35 children.
Silberman said he’s not discouraged by the low participation, because the facility is less than 2 months old. When it opened, many employees had children enrolled in other centers and he figured they weren’t likely to make the switch immediately.
“We think we built it right to accommodate future growth,” said Silberman, whose company subsidizes operation of the center and charges employees $90 per week for a full-time child.
“American Thermoplastic has no intention of making any money on it. We’re doing it as a benefit to employees,” he said.
For Shelly Kirk, a customer service representative at Thermoplastic, the on-site center saves her commuting time because she doesn’t have to drop 5- year-old David at another location on her way to work.
She spends lunch hours with her son, who is enrolled at the center two days a week.
“It’s always soothing to know your child is at arm’s reach,” said Kirk.
Tom Harrington’s employer does not have an on-site day care center, but Harrington can take advantage of perhaps the next best thing: a center located in his office building, USX Tower.
Harrington, who works for The Galbreath Co., which manages USX Tower, enrolled his children, Jon, 3 1/2, and Madeline, 3 months, at Hugs Galore prior to its opening in April.
The center, the first to be housed in a large downtown office building, enrolls children of USX Tower tenants as well as outsiders.
