DaytonDailyNews.com

site web

KeyBank's decision to move to the former MeadWestvaco Tower later this year will help shore up the 27-story office tower and comes amid other changes in downtown's business landscape.

KeyBank said Monday, March 31, it had leased space on four floors and plans to move its 200 employees, its main bank branch and its headquarters operations into the tower during fourth quarter 2008.

The bank's decision comes after a year in which vacancy rates for downtown office space spiked.

However, the city also will see an influx of new office space thanks to the $55 million office tower under construction at Main Street and Monument Avenue for CareSource Management Group and the retention of businesses such as law firm Flanagan, Lieberman, Hoffman & Swaim, which last month announced plans to relocate its staff of nearly 50 to the Kuhns building at Fourth and Main streets.

The move by KeyBank from its 34 N. Main St. location gives the office tower a shot in the arm, said Steve Budd, president and chief executive officer of CityWide Development.

"I think this will help put the tower back in the limelight as being one of the premier office spaces in the downtown," Budd said. The increased activity generated by the bank also will "breathe some life back into the first floor," Budd said.

Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin said, "It helps me believe they recognize that the city is being proactive in anchoring our downtown as a place to be."

The tower has lost two major occupants with the departure of MeadWestvaco Corp. and NewPage Corp. to Kettering and Miami Twp., Montgomery County, respectively. CareSource has leased two floors of the building and law firm Thompson Hine and accounting firm Deloitte & Touche also have offices in the building.

At one point last year, MeadWestvaco had about 285,000 square feet of empty space, the largest chunk of vacant offices in the central business district, according to Gem Real Estate Group, a brokerage and research firm.