Akron’s tallest building is officially for sale. Huntington Tower, home of Huntington Bank and 1,200 of its employees, has no asking price yet, according to a report by The Akron Beacon Journal.
The building at 106 S. Main St. in downtown Akron is about 40 percent vacant and Huntington occupies 11 of the 28 floors. Nick Browning, Huntington regional president for the Akron region, told the Beacon that he would be open to keeping offices in the building under a new owner, but Huntington has enough room in Cascade III, the building adjacent to it and the operations center to house all employees.
Here are some other notable details of the proposed sale:
- Browning stressed that the bank’s regional headquarters (since it acquired FirstMerit) will remain in Akron and jobs are not moving out of downtown. According to the report, Huntington has 1,600 employees in the Akron region of Medina, Portage and Summit. In the five-county region including Wayne and Stark counties, the bank has 1,963 employees.
- In November 2018, Huntington updated a revolving five-year deal with the city to keep jobs at its downtown headquarters in exchange for public infrastructure improvements and income tax breaks. The bank promised to maintain 1,200 jobs and $63 million in payroll — the same levels as it had in Akron before the acquisition. Browning told the Beacon he believes the potential sale of the tower does not violate the deal the bank made with the city.
