PNC Bank wants people to look to the Akron skyline and think of the bank.
The Pittsburgh-based bank or its predecessors — the bank bought National City in 2008 — have had a downtown Akron presence for 47 years.
Yet, while other tall buildings in downtown’s skyline including FirstMerit Bank and FirstEnergy Corp. have their names emblazoned on their buildings, PNC’s 23-story, dark brown building has had no branding on top. It has some limited signage at street level.
The building is the second tallest in downtown Akron, coming in just below FirstMerit’s white 28-story building.
The Akron Planning Commission on Friday morning will consider granting a petition by PNC to install 10-foot-tall and 30-foot-wide skyline signage with white lettering and the bank’s orange logo on all four sides of the building at South Main and Bowery streets. The proposal has received the approval of the city’s planning staff and the city’s Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission, said Akron zoning manager Michael Antenucci.
The sign can’t come soon enough for Kevin Thompson, regional president of PNC’s Akron market and an Akron-area native. Thompson has worked in the building for 40 years for PNC and its bank predecessors and has been the president of the nine-county region for 10 years.
For 40 years, “every time I drive in from the north side or west side at night, one of the tallest structures in Summit County only has these four little red lights on the four corners of the building. We’re really excited about enhancing the Akron skyline. We really want to be part of downtown. We think this is a big opportunity for us and for the community and Akron to shine a little brighter,” Thompson said.
The bank operates its Akron market regional headquarters, which includes a bank branch and six floors of employees including corporate and wealth bankers, in the building. Thompson said the bank does not share the number of employees working in the downtown location.
The absence of skyline signs for PNC hasn’t been for lack of trying or desire, said Thompson. It’s actually been a technological issue — and came down to window-washing.
Thompson said unlike the FirstEnergy and FirstMerit buildings, which have ledges or other architectural qualities that allowed for the building-top signage, his building goes straight up.
The way the building is designed, a gondola used to lower window washers down the side would have ruined any building-top sign PNC put up.
For decades, the technology wasn’t there to figure out how to make it work, Thompson said. But in the last several years, Thompson said he worked with the signage company and gondola company to “redesign a gondola that will literally go over the building and stay over the building until it drops below the sign.”
Thompson said he hopes that the building, which is officially called One Cascade Plaza and is part of the block of buildings downtown between Bowery and Market streets, will be referred to by people as the PNC building after the new signage.
Thompson also acknowledged that having his bank’s brand on the building will help with name recognition, in light of other names on buildings, including FirstMerit, whose signage would change to Huntington Bank if its proposed merger is approved by the third quarter.
“PNC is a Main Street bank. We want our name on Main Street. We want that exposure. We’re proud to be part of the economics of our community,” he said.
If approved, the signage would be installed later this summer. Thompson declined to say how much it would cost.
Thompson said he can’t wait to sit in the RubberDucks’ Canal Park baseball stadium at night and see his bank’s name on the tall building in lights.
“I’ve waited all these years for it,” he said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.