Not far from where Marc and Jeff Katz incubated their idea for a high-tech processor of credit-card transactions, Colorado politicians joined a couple hundred Durango residents to celebrate the billion-dollar company that Mercury Payment Systems has become.
Mercury on Friday unveiled its new 80,000-square-foot headquarters, Mercury Village, to a VIP audience. Groups toured the building as employees continued to move in from Mercury’s former Durango Tech Center building.
“It’s really hard to stand here today without thinking of where Mercury came from, just what seems like a short time ago, but a little over 10 years, which is a 1,000-square-foot building right across the highway,” said Mercury CEO Matt Taylor.
Mercury Village has room for 566 employees, according to the company. Mercury employs about 450 in Durango, and another 200 in Denver.
Employees are in the process of moving in to Mercury Village. Another 150 moved in Friday, and the building is about one-third full, Mercury officials said.
The $40 million building (including land costs) is stark and modern, with an airy feel and widespread use of glass and metal. Mercury Village earned a LEED Silver designation for environmental building practices, and 75 percent of construction waste was recycled, Taylor said.
The building has a small medical clinic, a fitness center with locker rooms and a cafe. The parking lot features electric vehicle chargers and bike racks. Upstairs is row after row of desks with computer monitors.
Larry Zauberis, a software engineer who was Mercury’s first employee, said the building should make it easier to work with his colleagues.
“Once we get settled in here, it will be more conducive to collaboration,” he said.
The building also has redundant fiber systems. Mercury employs data centers in Denver and Atlanta, in addition to Durango.
Reliable service is critical for payment-processing companies.
“The building could disappear, and our customers would continue to process,” Taylor said.
Mercury donated 32 acres of river frontage to the city of Durango to set aside as open space. The project overcame initial opposition from its neighbor, Durango Mall.
The ribbon cutting also came as a celebration of Mercury’s $1.65 billion sale, announced May 12, to Vantiv, a larger, Cincinnati-based competitor. Vantiv CEO Charles Drucker attended the event.
The sale has raised concerns locally about Vantiv’s plans for Mercury’s future in Durango, where the homegrown company is among the largest employers. In his remarks, Taylor sought to reassure the audience, speaking repeatedly of Mercury’s commitment to Durango.
“None of this would have been possible if we’d tried to build this business anywhere else,” Taylor said.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said he called Taylor the day the sale was announced to ask, “Is this good for Colorado or bad for Colorado?”
Bennet said he was satisfied the sale is good for Colorado.
Gov. John Hickenlooper also spoke at the event during a busy day in Durango.
“What Mercury has done is so profound because Durango has never had a company that started (here) and has grown so fast,” he said.
Friday’s tour also was the first time in the building for Mercury co-founder Marc Katz. He founded Mercury with his brother, Jeff, in 2001.
“Imagine what parents feel when they see their kids off,” he said.
Marc Katz said the merger with Vantiv “has the potential to get Mercury into a lot of places.”
“Even though we’re big in Durango, in the processing world we’re pretty small,” he said. “That’s kept us out of a lot of opportunities. ... This could allow us to win, a lot more easily, some bigger deals.”
The sale, if it wins approval from federal regulators, will inject many millions of dollars into Durango’s economy through Mercury’s founders, executives and some employees.
Zauberis was among the employees with a small ownership percentage in Mercury. He said he appreciates that he’ll receive a modest piece of the wealth created by the billion-dollar transaction.
“It’s nice that the early employees who really put a lot of work into this can benefit from the sale,” he said.
Marc Katz, a Durango resident, was Mercury’s largest shareholder besides private-equity firm Silver Lake, according to a federal securities filing. Katz said he doesn’t have any big plans after the sale.
“It’s not going to affect my lifestyle,” he said.
Katz said Mercury’s new building is “cool” but needs some personal touches.
“It needs some color, you know?” he said. “Maybe some giant pictures on the wall. Maybe some giant pictures of the founders.”
cslothower@durangoherald.com
