Amerigroup, based in Virginia Beach, to move to Norfolk [Virginian – Pilot]

By Josh Brown

The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia Beach-based health insurer Amerigroup Corp. will move its corporate headquarters and hundreds of workers to Norfolk in the next two years, a company involved in the deal said Tuesday.

Amerigroup has leased the former regional headquarters of the United Services Automobile Association, a 315,000-square-foot property near the intersection of Northampton Boulevard and North Military Highway.

The company, which coordinates services for people covered by Medicaid and other government-funded health care programs, employed 1,800 workers in Virginia Beach as of 2009. Amerigroup has approximately 5,100 workers across the country.

Maureen C. McDonnell, a spokeswoman for Amerigroup, declined to comment on the move. The company is to release its quarterly earnings today.

The move should be completed no later than 2014, said Justin Schmitt, a spokesman for USAA, which owns the building at 5800 Northampton Blvd.USAA, a San Antonio

-based insurance and financial services company, moved most of its Norfolk operations to other locations three years ago, leaving the majority of the space vacant.

USAA still has 370 employees, mostly claims workers, at the site, and the company is looking for a new location elsewhere in Hampton Roads, Schmitt said Tuesday.

"There may be a period of time when the building is cohabitated by the different companies," he said.

Schmitt said Amerigroup will likely move its workers in stages. Amerigroup's facilities in Virginia Beach include a leased building at 4425 Corporation Lane near Town Center, where the company houses its primary corporate offices, and call, claims and data centers.

Josh Brown, 757-446-2318, [email protected]