Procter & Gamble Co. will vacate six floors in the Chemed building downtown during the next two years as part of its drive to consolidate workers in its core headquarters.

        The move will affect hundreds of P&G workers in departments ranging from consumer relations to information technology. It's only the latest impact from P&G's two-year downsizing that has cut more than 2,000 Tristate jobs.

        The gradual pullout, to be implemented as P&G's various leases in the building expire over 19 months, also will add about 150,000 square feet of vacant office space onto a downtown market that has struggled to reduce vacancies and add new tenants.

        The Chemed Center at Fifth and Sycamore is the only large block of office space still leased by P&G downtown. It pulled out of the Hartford building on Main Street a year ago, and decided late last year not to renew a small lease in the PNC Center.

        All of those functions will move into P&G's general offices, spokeswoman Vicky Mayer said.

        According to real estate brokerage Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, the vacancy rate for newer Class A office space downtown was a “relatively healthy” 4.61 percent at year-end 2001.

        “We would expect that given the lack of activity in the marketplace, rental rates will remain stagnant for the upcoming year,” the Colliers report said.

        P&G also has finished its recruiting for next year, and is bringing close to 500 people into North American management positions, Ms. Mayer said.

        That's about the same as last year, but only about half of traditional levels before the P&G restructuring launched in 1999.

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