Citizen Staff Writer
TEYA VITU
tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com
Businesses are coming and going on the top floors of Tucson’s oldest and newest downtown skyscrapers.
Ecolab Vehicle Care plans to leave the UniSource Energy Tower, 1 S. Church Ave., in July, while the Feulner Dorris & Giordano law firm will move to the top floor of Chase Bank building at the end of this week.
“We should be operating there Monday morning,” partner Jerry Giordano said about the law firm’s move to the 10th floor of the 10-story Chase Bank building, built in 1929, at 2 E. Congress St.
The struggling economy led Ecolab’s St. Paul, Minn.-based corporate parent to bring its vehicle care division to the Twin Cities, said Mike Monahan, an Ecolab spokesman.
Ecolab Vehicle Care’s administrative center will leave the 21st, 22nd and 23rd stories of the UniSource Tower in July after occupying the top of Tucson’s tallest building since early 2008. The move involves about 30 employees in the division’s billing, credit and finance operations, Monahan said.
“We’re looking for all kinds of ways to make our business function more efficiently,” he said.
Ecolab is expanding its billing and credit offices in St. Paul to absorb the vehicle care division, which had operated since 1999 on the South Side at 4775 S. Butterfield Drive before moving downtown.
Ecolab Vehicle Care is one of nine Ecolab divisions. They include food service, health care, hospitality and food and beverage processing. Vehicle Care’s primary brands are Blue Coral (vehicle detergents and polishes), Westley’s (vehicle color enhancement and fragrance) and Rain-X (a vehicle glass treatment).
Feulner Dorris & Giordano, a law firm assembled in the past year at the Williams Centre, 310 S. Williams Blvd., needed more space and decided being closer to the legal community downtown made more sense.
“Once the three of us were together, we decided we needed a bigger office,” Giordano said.
Attorney George Feulner had a downtown practice for 30 years before moving to Williams Centre in 2005 to be closer to his home. Attorney John Dorris joined the practice at the start of 2008 and Giordano followed in August 2008.
“They twisted my arm, so I’m going back downtown,” Feulner said.
The 10th floor of the Chase Bank building (formerly Bank One and long known as the Valley Bank building) was empty for many years because the banks didn’t market the vacant space, said Buzz Isaacson, a CB Richard Ellis first vice president who is the most active downtown office broker.
Feulner Dorris & Giordano have growth in mind. The three-attorney firm occupies 1,300 square feet at Williams Centre. The firm will occupy the entire 10th floor – 5,769 square feet.
“I’d like to say we will add two to three lawyers a year over the next few years and one staff person for every two lawyers or two staff for every three lawyers,” Giordano said.
Downtown Chase Bank building gets tenant; UniSource losing one