GoDaddy remodeled office has a speak-easy and a slide

From the outside, GoDaddy's Hiawatha office looks like plenty of others around Iowa.

The two-story structure is made of concrete, has windows evenly spaced around the exterior and is surrounded by parking.

Inside, however, a slide connects the second floor to the first, a professional chef serves up lunch at $2 a pop, and a swing and fake grass adorn an open meeting space. Employees can work out in a brand-new fitness room or grab a free beer in a 'secret speak-easy” hidden behind a TARDIS-like doorway.

Conference rooms are adorned with names recognizing Iowa businesses, such as Fareway, Raining Rose and Pig & Porter.

'We wanted to put amenities in this building that were different, that were unique to this facility,” said Calvin Crowder, GoDaddy's vice president of global real estate.

GoDaddy, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., held a party last week to celebrate the recent remodel of the Hiawatha office. The remodel included a top-to-bottom redo, company officials said, of the space and the addition of 12,000 square feet.

Because offices represent a company's culture, CEO Blake Irving said, the remodel was an investment in that culture.

'If you make your employees happy, you make your customers happy. If you make your customers happy, your investors are going to be happy,” Irving said. 'If you ever get that backward, horrible things happen to businesses that get that confused.”

Irving said he'd like to add more to the office, such as an outdoor basketball or volleyball court. First, though, the office would need a parking ramp.

The Hiawatha office also has a bit of history for GoDaddy. Irving said it served as the location for Parsons Technology, the company GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons started before he entered the internet-domain business.

GoDaddy now has about 600 employees in the Hiawatha space, including customer service, marketing staff and developers.

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