Ideas are swirling for future of vacant historic downtown Tucson bank lobby

The future of the ornate bank lobby in the historic Valley National Bank building in downtown Tucson is unclear since Chase Bank closed its ground-floor branch there last week.

But the owners of the landmark property at 2 E. Congress St. are committed to preserving the lobby of the 94-year-old Italian Renaissance revival building, the building’s manager said.

Chase closed its downtown branch Dec. 6 and its branch on North Campbell Avenue at East Grant Road on Dec. 15, as part of what the bank said is an ongoing effort to consolidate resources to better serve customers.

The downtown building’s property manager said the owners are working on concepts to reuse the bank space while preserving its original interior, which includes mahogany woodwork, marble floors and counters, composite marble columns and ornate bronze railings and grillwork.

“We are investigating how best to serve the space, we don’t have any definitive direction as of yet, but we are being very diligent in our studies to make sure that the building is not only maintained, but cared for,” said Crystal Moore of Presidio Management, which manages the building for local owners Rob Caylor and Art Wadlund of Two East Congress LLC.

The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 as the Valley National Bank Building.

Moore said the owners are working with the National Register, the Secretary of the Interior and the State of Arizona Historic Preservation Office on how to repurpose the bank space while preserving its historic accoutrements.

Future uses

Fletcher McCusker, chairman of the downtown Rio Nuevo District, said the district has offered to help preserve the space for its next use, adding that he sees it turning into an upscale bar or restaurant.

Rio Nuevo is a tax-increment district that gets a portion of state sales tax revenues from within its downtown area, which is a city overlay zone, and invests the money in downtown development projects.

“It is likely to be food and beverage space, producing sales tax, in our opinion all good for downtown,” McCusker said in an email. “Banks don’t pay sales tax, and the lobby, we believe, will be a huge attraction.”

Kathleen Eriksen, president and CEO of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, said the bank space fell victim to the times as consumers have moved to online banking, but the Chase space is full of potential.

“I understand that the property is being considered for some very exciting concepts and I am confident that this historic gem will not be empty long,” Eriksen said. “It’s prime real estate and there are exciting things in store for the intersection of Congress and Stone.”

Saving history

Demion Clinco, CEO of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, said the bank lobby is a historic gem that deserves preservation for future generations.

“It was one of the major banks in our city, that has this really magnificent, intact interior, which you just don’t see a lot of in Tucson and makes it exceptional,” he said.

Clinco said the bank space is ripe for redevelopment and could qualify for the 20% Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive to defray any rehabilitation costs.

“It’s really poised for an adaptive reuse project — I could certainly see it becoming a restaurant or some kind of entertainment venue,” Clinco said.

The National Register listing doesn’t restrict private owners from altering or even demolishing listed buildings, unless federal funding or permitting is involved.

Because the bank building is in the Rio Nuevo zoning overlay zone, any exterior changes have to go through a city historical commission, but interior alterations are generally not restricted, Clinco said.

Clinco said he’s also concerned about the fate of about 20 pieces of artwork in the bank space, which he said includes paintings by Western artist Ferdinand Burgdorff, and bronze sculptures by Lawrence Tenney Stevens and Luis Jiménez.

“Valley National Bank had collected art, and Valley National Bank was built up by the people of Arizona, so it’s really an asset of the people of Southern Arizona,” Clinco said. “It seems to me it would be a real travesty to see these packed up and shipped to some art storage, never to be seen again.”

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Clinco said that after Valley National Bank was sold, many of its art objects were donated to the Heard Museum in Phoenix and other institutions.

Moore, the building manager, declined to comment on the art collection.

Chase’s Padilla said the bank is still assessing the art collection in the downtown Tucson bank space.

“At the moment our team is still taking inventory of the art at that specific location, and details as to what will happen next are not currently available,” she said in an email.

Chase Bank’s parent, JPMorgan Chase, boasts an art collection it calls “one of the most established corporate collections in the world.”

Tucson’s first ‘skyscraper’

The 10-story building was Tucson’s tallest structure when it was constructed in 1929 at a cost of $1 million by Consolidated National Bank, which was acquired 1935 by the former Valley National Bank, which was merged with Bank One in 1992.

Chase Bank had operated the branch at 2 E. Congress St. since acquiring the bank building with its merger with Bank One in 2004.

Chase, which merged with JP Morgan in 2000, sold the building to local investors in 2007 and leased back the ground-floor lobby space, basement and other office space.

In 2017, much of the upper-floor space was converted to luxury studio apartments known as Two East Congress.

Besides the spaces occupied by Chase, the building is 100% leased, Moore said.

According to its National Register listing form, the Valley National Bank Building features Italian Renaissance revival architecture, with mahogany doors and woodwork; two chandeliers that cost $1,000 each in 1929; 14 scagliola (faux marble) columns supporting the mezzanine floors and surrounding the public lobby space; marble-faced counters with cedar bases; pink Tennessee marble floors, a Venetian mirror topped by a lighted clock; and a grand staircase to a mezzanine surrounded by a solid bronze grill.

The elaborate bank lobby was used as a film set for a bank-robbery scene in the 1980 movie “Stir Crazy,” starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.

The building was also used in filming of the 1956 noir film “A Kiss Before Dying,” with a character played by Robert Wagner pushing Joanne Woodward’s character off the roof.

Downtown banking

Padilla said Tucson remains an important market for Chase and the bank continues to open new branches in high-growth or underserved areas, noting that Chase still has about 30 branches in the greater Tucson metro area.

The nearest Chase branch to the closed downtown office, as well as the branch at on North Campbell, is on the University of Arizona campus at 947 N. Park Ave.

Major banks including Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo have increased their net branch closures in recent years as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a move away from in-person banking to online services.

Wells Fargo closed its downtown Tucson branch at 150 N. Stone Ave. in February.

The closures leave downtown with two walk-in branches, PNC Bank and National Bank of Arizona, both on Stone Avenue.

Wells Fargo, PNC Bank, Bank of America, Chase and US Bank have ATM machines downtown, though Padilla said the Chase ATM will be decommissioned.

“It’s a natural byproduct of this post-digital era with banks offering more digital services at a lower cost,” the Downtown Partnership’s Eriksen said. “Downtowns around the nation, including our very own, continue to evolve in these times to conform to changing customer preferences.”