A look inside American Express’ new South Florida headquarters

SUNRISE, Fla. – The new $200 million South Florida headquarters for American Express looks more like a spaceship than an office building.

From the moment you walk through the security turnstiles at the 400,000-square-foot building in Sunrise, you realize it is a corporate campus designed to please employees and keep them productive — a concept they call blue work.

“We have created a very collaborative, open workspace, and that is really top of mind for us in creating an environment that is healthy for our employees,” Elise Askenazi said.

Workers are still putting the finishing touches on the building, but eventually, it will be teeming with 3,000 employees.

Towering atriums and colorful, comfortable furniture make it look like a Silicon Valley tech campus.

There are no assigned desks, and employees can work where they please. There aren’t even drawers in the desks, so each employee has an electronically secure locker.

The building is green and LEED-certified, so as people walk into a room for the first time, sensors automatically turn on the lights.

A lot of the workspace is shared, so American Express decided they needed a spot for their employees to have a little privacy. They built a whole bank of phone booths, so an employee can come inside to use the phone or their cellphone to make a private call.

There are even technology concierge desks for those who have issues with their laptops or a presentation.

To keep employees healthy, there is a fitness center and even a bike-sharing program to get around the 40-acre campus.

“The idea here is to give people the opportunity to decompress,” Askenazi said.

From ping-pong tables to shuffleboard, foosball and billiards, there are multiple game rooms in each tower.

The company even put a backup daycare center in for its employees, complete with a playground, a sandbox, a splash pad and even a basketball court.

“And this is our wellness center, where employees have the convenience on-site to come get a physical exam, or have lab work (done),’ Askenazi said as she showed Local 10 News reporter Todd Tongen around the campus.

Staffed with a nurse practitioner, nurses and a nutritionist, employees can schedule appointments on their lunch break.

Speaking of lunch, the facility has a state-of-the-art cafeteria with soup and salad bars and cooked-to-order healthy specialties from the grill.

To top it all off, they have a Starbucks inside with a full-time barista to keep employees fueled and moving AMEX into the future.

American Express has slowly begun moving employees into the complex, and all 3,000 employees should be in place by late March, bringing even more economic growth to west Sunrise.