Nordia is closing its Saint John office space — but all 320 employees working there will keep their jobs.

The company announced Thursday it is moving to fully virtual operations in the city as of March.

Philip van Leeuwen, vice-president of strategy and corporate communications, said the timing could not be better.

The lease for the company’s 40,376 sq. ft. space in Prince Edward Square Mall uptown is set to expire in March.

And the centre has sat practically empty for two-and-a-half years, with more than 90 per cent of employees working from home since the pandemic began.

Van Leeuwen said the company had been eying the work-from-home model for years, even before COVID-19 changed how they operate.

“It was such a big mountain to change that it took something as major as the pandemic to actually move in that direction. But once we did it, we did it really quickly,” said van Leeuwen.

Within six weeks, more than 3,300 of the company’s employees across the country were working from home, he said.

Van Leeuwen said the work-from-home model has proven to be a success, with many employees appreciating the convenience and flexibility.

“It allowed our employees to continue to retain their jobs, it allowed them to be safe in their home environment,” he said.

Moving to virtual operations in Saint John will also reduce Nordia’s operating costs and make it easier to attract employees, said van Leeuwen.

The customer service solutions provider has operated in the Port City since 2014 and moved into its current location in 2015.

Nordia also employs nearly 700 people out of its Moncton centre, but the company said there are no plans for that site to go fully virtual like Saint John.

Van Leeuwen said while most employees are working from home, there are certain services that must be done within the centre, such as Next Generation 9-1-1.

“For security and redundancy, that’s something that you cannot spread out and have people do at home,” he said.

The Moncton centre also serves as the hub for all New Brunswick employees, said van Leeuwen, and is home to a workplace planning team and IT lab.

“It’s kind of the mini Amazon in receiving and sending equipment out to employees,” he said.

Van Leeuwen said the Moncton site is one of the company’s newest — and largest — centres across Canada.

In total, Nordia employs 4,400 people in 12 regions across New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.