Chase Tower (formerly known as Valley Bank Center and Bank One Center) is a 40-story skyscraper at 201 North Central Avenue in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. Opened in 1972, the building was designed by architects

Welton Becket Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California. Biography Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washingt ...

and Fred M. Guirey. The skyscraper is located in Central Avenue Corridor, an economic and residential region of

Downtown Phoenix Downtown Phoenix is the central business district (CBD) of the City of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is in the heart of the Phoenix metropolitan area or Valley of the Sun. Phoenix, being the county seat of Maricopa County, Arizona, ...

. Chase Tower was initially constructed in 1972 for Valley National Bank. In 1992, Valley National Bank lost a hostile take over by Bank One.

Bank One Bank One Corporation was an American bank founded in 1968 and at its peak the sixth-largest bank in the United States. It traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONE. The company merged with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on July 1, ...

merged with Valley National Bank in 1992. and Chase merged with Bank One in 2005. The building was renamed in December 2005. At , Chase Tower is the tallest building in Arizona.

Site

Chase Tower is on 201 North Central Avenue, in the Central Avenue Corridor region of

. Chase Tower is 40 stories tall, but the highest occupiable floor is the 38th. At one time there was a public observation area on the 39th floor in the Chase Tower, but it was closed during redevelopment and construction on the upper floors. The tower takes up an entire city block. The footprint is similar to a 3 leaf clover and its stem. The stem is the narrow elevator core on the southern facade. It has a rough, concrete texture and is the tallest portion of the tower. The remaining exterior is a glass panel curtain wall. The west leaf, or wing, stands at 34 floors, followed by the north wing at 38 floors, and the east wing at 36 floors. Unlike many traditional skyscrapers with zero- setback retail/lobby space on the ground floor, access to the tower is through an underground restaurant/retail concourse set a comparatively large distance away from the bordering streets.

History

Valley National Bank While Under Construction

The building was designed by the prominent

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

architectural firm

and Associates (now Ellerbe Becket), with local associate architects Guirey, Srnka, Arnold & Sprinkle. It was built by the Henry C. Beck Company (now

The Beck Group The Beck Group is a company that provides architecture, construction, sustainability, virtual building, and technology services. The company is based in Dallas, Texas. It has regional offices in Atlanta, Austin, Carolinas, Dallas, Denver, Fort W ...

). Upon completion, the tower marked the beginning of a renewed investment in downtown Phoenix that would last for almost twenty years until the

savings and loan crisis The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s (commonly dubbed the S&L crisis) was the failure of approximately a third of the savings and loan associations (S&Ls or thrifts) in the United States between 1986 and 1995. These thrifts were b ...

brought about the 1989 real estate crash. Located at 201 North Central Avenue, the tower was renovated in 2003 to accommodate 800 additional Bank One employees. In March 2007, CRZ Phoenix, LLC, an affiliate of Crystal River Capital, acquired the property for $166.9 million, the highest price paid for an office building in Phoenix. The owners took out a $198.5 million loan on the property in 2007, on which it subsequently defaulted. The building was featured in the History Channel series, ''

Life After People ''Life After People'' is a television series on which scientists, mechanical engineers, and other experts speculate about what might become of planet Earth if humanity suddenly disappeared. The featured experts also talk about the impact of h ...

''. In May 2018, a partnership managed by Wentworth Property Company acquired the building out of foreclosure for $79 million, less than half of its 2007 sale price. Less than six months later, Vincent Viola purchased the building for $107.5 million. As of July 2021, Chase was in the process of vacating the building as most employees have been transferred to Chase's new corporate campus in (east suburban) Tempe. The last employees were expected to transition to the new location by September 30, 2021. At that point, the building stood empty. No future plans for the tower have been announced. As of November 1, 2021, the Chase sign atop the building has been removed. On February 7, 2023, a

pro-life Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in response to the lega ...

activist named Maison DesChamps, calling himself "Pro-life Spiderman", scaled the tower with no safety gear to raise awareness for a pro-life charity. He successfully reached the roof of the building, and was taken into custody by officers who were waiting at the top, who charged him with trespassing and criminal nuisance.

References

External links

*http://www.chase.com *http://www.coppersquare.com
Phoenix Architecture 1895 thru 2010
Video celebrating Phoenix Architecture {{Tallest Buildings by U.S. state, state=autocollapse Office buildings completed in 1972 JPMorgan Chase buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Phoenix, Arizona Welton Becket buildings Modernist architecture in Arizona 1972 establishments in Arizona

Site

History

See also

References

External links