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The three-year renovation project at Chase Tower has reached $30 million in cost as its owner, JPMorgan Chase & Co., tries to lure additional commercial and retail tenants to the 27-floor building.
The cost when the project was announced in 2005 was $21 million.
With nearly 132,000 square feet in office space, Chase Tower ranks third behind Midtown Plaza and Sibley Centre, data from the Rochester Downtown Development Corp. show. The building ranks first in Class A space downtown.
"We really needed to modernize the building," said Malcolm Wolcott Jr., the bank's Rochester-based upstate president. "The building was finished in 1972. We needed to do a total rejuvenation, along with bringing the computer systems that the bank has to state-of-the-art wiring and beyond. The thing I'm most proud of is we made the commitment to revitalize a building downtown."
Most of the upgrades have been completed, Wolcott said. The remaining work involves upgrades to heating, ventilating and air conditioning units, installing digital elevators and making restrooms on floors occupied by JPMorgan Chase workers handicap accessible, he said.
"The elevators are going to be state-of-the-art, all computerized," Wolcott said. "Elevators are a little difficult. Elevators take anywhere from four to six weeks for each one to be done. It'll probably be another year."
The project reached $30 million when bank officials decided to spend $3 million on elevators, the HVAC system and renovations to the street-level plaza, Wolcott said.
"We put in all new tiling, window treatments, we remodeled the siding inside of (the plaza)," he said.
In addition to making the interior more attractive, Wolcott said, the building is more secure, with new sprinklers and smoke detectors. Its auditorium, cafeteria and conference rooms have been upgraded as well.
"It's basically bringing it up to a building that a tenant can feel comfortable in," Wolcott said. "Plus, if their employees are customers of JPMorgan Chase - which they should be - it's less down time for them when they want to do some of their personal banking."
JPMorgan consolidated all of its non-bank branch employees into the tower in 2007, including 600 from the Seneca Building at Midtown Plaza. However,...