Diebold halts plans to build new world headquarters in Green

NORTH CANTON, Ohio - Plans to construct a corporate global headquarters in Green have been suspended, the locally-rooted software and security products maker Diebold Inc. announced Thursday.

Diebold said it will remain in its current location in North Canton and will not pursue options for a global facility in Green or elsewhere.

“As we’ve been analyzing our near and long-term growth priorities, it has become clear that investing more than $100 million in a headquarters facility is not economically feasible given the other priorities for the business at this time,” said Thomas W. Swidarski, Diebold president and chief executive officer in a news release.

In April 2011, Diebold announced plans to build a consolidated corporate campus somewhere in the Akron/Canton region. They got more specific in January 2012, pinpointing a 55-acre site near the intersection of Massillon Road and Town Park Boulevard in Green as the site.

Groundbreaking had been scheduled for 2013.

Diebold currently employs approximately 2,000 associates in northeast Ohio with an annual payroll of about $130 million. The company maintains seven facilities in the Akron/Canton region.

They said they will use the money that would have gone into the facility to capitalize on opportunities for acquisition and investment. Diebold's profit and revenue rose in the first quarter of the fiscal year as they cut costs and sold more ATMs to North American banks.