Taylor president talks about what’s next for century-old Dayton company

Taylor Communications’ President Mark O’Leary said the company’s new downtown Dayton office is a good fit for a business that needs an innovative staff.

The 104-year-old company with document and business services is moving about 600 of its employees to downtown Dayton by early next year.

Taylor, with the help of city and county incentives, extensively renovated eight stories of what was an outdated space and turned it into a modern open office layout.

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“We just wanted to create the space for them to continue to do what they do and continue to innovate,” he said.

The company — formerly Standard Register before it filed for bankruptcy in 2015— will keep about 100 employees at its Albany Street campus Dayton. Its decision to shift 600 employees to the center of Dayton makes it the largest new tenant to move downtown in decades.

O’Leary, speaking during an interview at the company’s new office, said employees are what drive the business and being in the Central Business District during downtown’s resurgence will help with Taylor’s recruitment and retention efforts.

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“I’ve also heard from some of the people on our team and they’ve moved downtown lately, and they talk about the renaissance and the energy … You know, even looking out that window you can see some of these buildings are being rehabbed,” he said.

About 150 employees with Taylor Communications — formerly Standard Register — have already moved into new First Street office, owned by Montreal-based Olymbec.

O’Leary said that what’s next for the company includes working with brands in the financial, retail, automotive, and energy industries to help them learn the best way to communicate in the digital age with their websites or mobile tools.

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Taylor Communications has more than 300 active U.S. patents and recently received a new patent for technology that lets people sign for something without creating a user name and password to authenticate.

“We’re commercializing it right now, with the health care market first,” he said, adding there is interest also from retail and financial customers who are also looking for better ways to sign online.

As part of the agreement for Taylor to move downtown, the city and county gave a combined $1 million incentive and as part of the agreement, Taylor says it will spend at least $2.4 million on facility improvements, equipment and other items so it can occupy about 130,000 square feet of space in the office tower.

In exchange for the city’s support, Taylor has also agreed to pay at least $500,000 annually in wage withholding taxes through 2023.

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“Broadly, I think knowing that the community was engaged and there was that level of interest and partnership was really important to us,” O’Leary said.

The company is also currently listing its Albany Street campus for sale, though O’Leary said Taylor plans to still have a presence there.

Taylor still has about 100 people at the campus, including its label business that can make a surface of one material like plastic look like another material like brushed aluminum or stainless steel.

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But, O’Leary said it still makes sense to market the building for sale and find a user to take over the empty space in the building.

“The building is being actively marketed right now. It’s more space than we need,” he said.

Employees at the company will be parking at different spots around downtown that work for them. O’Leary said one of the good things about Dayton is that it doesn’t have a problem with scarcity of parking the way other cities do.

‘We don’t have that challenge here,” he said.

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