Comerica Bank Tower

Comerica Bank Tower (formerly Momentum Place, Bank One Center and Chase Center) is a 60-story postmodern skyscraper located at 1717 Main Street in the Main Street District in downtown Dallas, Texas . Standing at a structural height of 787 feet (240 m), it is the third tallest skyscraper in the city of Dallas. (If the antennas and spires of Renaissance Tower were excluded, Comerica Bank Tower would be the second tallest.) It is also the sixth tallest building in Texas and the 49th tallest building in the United States. The building was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee and was completed in 1987. The structure has 1,500,000 square feet (100,000 m²) of office space.

History

Originally known as Momentum Place, the tower was built as the new headquarters of MCorp Bank. The site, which included the Woolf Brothers and Volk Brothers department stores, was one of the busiest blocks in downtown Dallas. Adjacent blocks included the Neiman Marcus Building, Wilson Building, Titche-Goettinger Building and Mercantile National Bank Building. The entire block from Ervay to St. Paul was leveled to make way for the new tower. The original design as proposed by Johnson called for several office buildings, a hotel and a large shopping mall designed in an ornate classical style. MCorp Bank instead desired a more restrained office tower without any retail; the design for the banking hall was also scaled down.

Comerica

Comerica, Inc. is an American financial services company founded in Detroit, Michigan and currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas. In addition to Michigan and Texas, it has retail-banking operations in Arizona, California, and Florida, and select business operations in several other U.S. states, as well as in Canada and Mexico.

It is the 22nd largest U.S. financial holding company, with $69.3 billion in total assets, $48.2 billion in total loans, and $57 billion in total deposits as of March 31, 2015. It is the largest U.S. commercial bank headquartered in Texas. The company's operating units include the Business Bank, the Retail Bank, and Wealth Management.

Employing nearly 9,000 people, its major operations are located in Detroit, Livonia, Auburn Hills, Michigan and Dallas. Ralph Babb is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer; Karen Parkhill is the Chief Financial Officer.

History

The company was founded in Detroit by Elon Farnsworth in 1849 as the Detroit Savings Fund Institute. Its name changed to The Detroit Savings Bank in 1871 and to The Detroit Bank in 1936, being one of the few area banks to survive the Great Depression. In 1956, the company merged with Birmingham National Bank, Ferndale National Bank and Detroit Wabeek Bank and Trust Company to form The Detroit Bank & Trust Company. In 1971, it formed a holding company, DetroitBank Corporation. The current name was adopted in 1982.