AmTrust Financial Building, formerly known as McDonald Investment Center, Key Center and the Central National Bank Building, is a commercial high-rise building in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. The building rises 308 feet (94 m) in

Downtown Cleveland Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio. The economic and symbolic center of the city and the Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square laid out b ...

. It contains 23 floors, and was completed in 1969. The building currently stands as the 18th-tallest building in the city. When first constructed, the tower stood as the fifth-tallest building in Cleveland. The architect who designed the building was

Charles Luckman Charles Luckman (May 16, 1909 – January 26, 1999) was an American businessman, property developer, and architect known for designing landmark buildings in the United States such as the Theme Building, Prudential Tower, Madison Square Garden, ...

History

Central National Bank

In 1965, Central National Bank decided to build a new headquarters on the flank of the Erieview Plan (created by architect

I.M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

). Central National Bank was one of Cleveland's largest banks of the 1960s. With growth in banking, Central National Bank needed space for a new tower. In 1966, demolition of the 6-floor Ellington Apartments (which had caught fire in 1960) began. In 1967, ground was broken for the 23-story red bricked edifice. It was designed by

of the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based The Luckman Partnership architectural firm. In 1969, the Central National Bank Tower officially opened. In late 1977, some bricks fell off the Central National Bank Building, with no fatalities. In 1979, engineers found a problem with an additive used in the brickwork mortar, Dow Chemical's Sarabond. Subsequently, the Central National Bank sued Dow Chemical in 1980 and won their case. Brickwork remodification took over two years to complete. The building has almost 2,000,000 bricks which all had to be resealed.

McDonald & Co. Investments

In 1986, Society Bank bought out Central National Bank and its assets. In 1991, McDonald & Co. Investments bought the tower, which placed its "McD" logo on the top of the building.

KeyCorp KeyBank, the primary subsidiary of KeyCorp, is a regional bank headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and is the only major bank based in Cleveland. KeyBank is one of the largest banks in the United States. Key's customer base spans retail, small ...

bought McDonald in 1998, which added its

skeleton key A skeleton key (also known as a passkey) is a type of master Lock (security device), key in which the serrated edge has been removed in such a way that it can open numerous Lock and key, locks, most commonly the warded lock. The term derives fr ...

onto the new McDonald Investments logo and the building became known as the "McDonald Investments Center." In 2004, KeyCorp management creating a functional unit and rebranded McDonald as "McDonald Financial Group," precipitating another new logo to be placed on the top of the building. However, the building remained McDonald Investments Center. The building was acquired by IPC US Real Estate Investment Trust, a

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

-based firm in July 2002 for $45M.

UBS

In 2007, McDonald was sold to Swiss-based

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

, causing the building to be renamed to Key Center. In February 2007, new signage was placed on the street level. UBS will have a Cleveland Office in the building. In June 2007, an electronic stock and news ticker was installed giving people on the streets news and business information, as in

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

AmTrust Financial Services

In 2011 the building was placed for sale via an online auction where it was purchased by a subsidiary of AmTrust North America ( AFSI), a P&C insurance carrier who is based in New York, New York, but had the majority of its operations in a Cleveland suburb, Seven Hills. Moving most of its Ohio operations into this building has helped revitalize the downtown area dubbed the

Nine-Twelve District The Nine-Twelve District is a major area of downtown Cleveland, in the U.S. state of Ohio, that is the re-branding of the former Financial District of Cleveland. This re-branding has largely been championed by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. The na ...

Location

The Amtrust Financial Building is located on the southwest corner of East 9th and Superior, two of the major roads in Cleveland. East 9th is considered to be the east boundary of central downtown, and Superior (US route 6) is a major east–west artery route.

Current occupants

AmTrust Financial Services AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., is a New York City-based multinational property and casualty insurance company, offering workers’ compensation, general liability, business owners policies (BOP), cyber liability, employment practices liabilit ...

National General Insurance National General Insurance, formerly the GMAC Insurance Group is a Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based property and casualty insurance company. The company was founded in 1920. The company is the only insurance company in the United States to o ...

(formerly GMAC Insurance) * Key Bank *ASMGi

Firms involved in construction

Tishman Speyer Properties Tishman Speyer Properties is an American company that invests in real estate. History The firm was founded in 1978 by Robert Tishman and Jerry Speyer. In March 1988, the company announced its first project in Europe, the construction of a 70 ...

- developer *Kelley Steel Erectors *Cantor Seinuk Group Inc. (The firm building the

Freedom Tower One World Trade Center (also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly Freedom Tower) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merr ...

of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

) *John W. Blatt Elevator Consulting Inc.

References

{{reflist ;Sources
Emporis

Skyscraper office buildings in Cleveland Office buildings completed in 1969 Charles Luckman buildings