Employees are settling into Sherwin-Williams’ new headquarters tower, fronted by its pavilion on Cleveland’s Public Square. And like any new building, they’re still working out the kinks as evidenced by the HVAC contractor’s van parked out front (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
SHW’s first new retail tenant revealed
On any given day, you’re bound to see a contractor’s truck or a repair van parked outside of Sherwin-Williams’ brand-new headquarters on the northwest side of Public Square, in Downtown Cleveland.
It’s a skyscraper with a lot of interactive technology, computers, software, sensors and connecting cables, and thus more things to refine, repair or learn how to make function properly as 3,100 employees settle in.
Those employees are coming from other, older buildings in Downtown Cleveland recently owned or leased by the global coatings giant. And while Sherwin-Williams had upgraded those properties over the decades, this new building is a whole ‘nother level of state-of-the-art compared to those. Others are returning to the office from working hybrid.
A modern office tower relies heavily on automation and systems integration. So things like scheduling a room for a meeting is what causes the lighting, audio visuals, and air conditioning or heating for that room to turn on a few minutes before that meeting — in theory.
Sherwin-Williams hasn’t forgotten about its tower’s exterior lighting plans, aside from its name atop the skyscraper. But it isn’t the highest priority right now as it works out the bugs inside the building. Look for the lighting plans to be implemented by the end of this year (Sherwin-Williams).
Instead, sometimes when workers enter the meeting room, they discover it’s like a sauna, or the audio visuals aren’t working properly, or the scheduling software didn’t save the room reservation, employees have reported to NEOtrans and noted on online discussion forums.
So when non-Sherwin-Williams employees ask when the skyscraper’s decorative exterior lighting will be turned on, employees respond with self-deprecating humor saying they just want the lights to work inside the building.
Given that, it’s probably not surprising that Sherwin-Williams’ Vice President of Global Corporate Communications Julie Young didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail from NEOtrans asking about when the building’s exterior lighting package will be implemented.
That package, which is still planned to move forward, includes a vertical color strip up the length of the middle of the 616-foot-tall tower, Downtown Cleveland’s fourth-tallest. And it includes vertical pinstripe lighting on the angular crown of the skyscraper.
Next to the Sherwin-Williams headquarters on West 3rd Street is the 920-space parking garage. Along the ground-floor West 3rd façade is a retail liner that will gain its first tenant soon (NEOtrans).
The programmable, vertical color strip up the length of the building has occasionally been tested but not fully implemented. It appears that, given other refinement priorities inside the new building, exterior lighting features are to be implemented sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.
Another piece of the puzzle that’s coming together is the 2,500-square-foot retail liner along the West 3rd Street side of the headquarters’ parking garage. The first tenant for this space has revealed itself.
A permit application was submitted yesterday by HSB Architects of Cleveland for that tenant — Century Federal Credit Union (FCU). That probably should not come as a surprise since Century FCU has a retail location inside the lobby of Sherwin-Williams’ old headquarters, 101 W. Prospect St.
As one of the largest credit unions in Northeast Ohio with over $400 million in assets, the non-profit Century FCU serves more than 350 Select Employee Groups (SEGs) throughout the Greater Cleveland area. Sherwin-Williams is one of those SEGs.
Century Federal Credit Union, a tenant in the lobby of the old Sherwin-Williams headquarters on Prospect, will be a tenant in the new headquarters. It will take 1,579 square feet of this 2,500-square-foot ground-floor retail liner along the West 3rd Street side of the new headquarters’ parking garage (NEOtrans).
Of the 2,500-square-foot retail liner, Century FCU will build out and occupy approximately 1,579 square feet of that space, but leave the exterior storefront as-is — except for a $15,000 sign. The interior work is estimated at $250,000, according to the permit application.
Century FCU, founded in 1948, is headquartered on Rockside Road in Independence. In addition to having storefront retail locations in Richmond Heights, North Olmsted and Strongsville, it has locations inside other buildings of major Cleveland employers.
Among them are the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building, 1240 E. 9th St., in Building 15 at NASA Glenn Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Rd., the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s Hayden Garage, 1661 Hayden Ave. in East Cleveland, and the Wade Park Veterans Administration Medical Center, 10701 East Blvd., Room 1-E210.
There is still a 921-square-foot space available in the parking garage’s retail liner for a prospective tenant. Real estate brokerage CBRE is handling the leasing at the new headquarters, including for future development phases on Sherwin-Williams properties along St. Clair Avenue and West 6th Street.
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