New restaurant, bar envisioned for former bank space in Rochester. Take a peek inside
A little over a decade ago, Gallina Development Corp. bought the former Security Trust office building — its first major investment downtown — renovated it and opened The Penthouse at One East Avenue, a one-of-a-kind event space on 11th floor.
The top spot, offering sweeping views of Rochester, including from a wrap-around terrace, has hosted happenings ranging from concerts to silent discos to weddings and provided a spectacular perch for shows on neighboring Parcel 5.
It now is Gallina’s hope to bring a similarly unique venue — possibly a restaurant and bar — to street level in the two-story-high brick-and-glass extension that once housed a Security Trust bank branch and in late 2019 was vacated by Bank of America.
“Originally, it was built with 10 teller stations in the days of everybody lining up on Friday to cash their checks and come into this grand space,” marketing director Lauren Gallina said.
That world doesn’t exist anymore, having long since given way to direct deposit and ATM machines. (Bank of America moved to the nearby Sibley Building, and that branch is fully automated.)
However, One East Avenue “has always had a unique position,” she said of the structure, completed by the mid-1960s.
Gallina Development purchased it for $2.35 million from a New York City-based commercial real estate and investment firm, Monroe County records show.
Located at the corner of East Main Street, “It brings the East End into Main Street,” she said, “and has such an iconic address: One East Avenue.”
The property itself is unusual for Rochester because of its mid-century modern style.
Said Megan Klem, director of preservation services for The Landmark Society of Western New York: “I wouldn’t say it’s rare, but it’s less well-represented than some of the other historic commercial styles you see downtown,” many of which date to the late 19th and early 20th century.
Set on a V-shaped footprint, the landmark designed by St. Louis, Missouri, architect William F. Cann also includes crenelated, or undulating, rooflines that are echoed in stone planters near the entrance. (Cann spent most of his career designing financial institutions but also was responsible for Howard Johnson’s A-frame gatehouse design.)
Hexagonal columns holding up the office tower are part of a plaza area. Described in a 1968 Democrat and Chronicle story as looking like “space-age mushroom stems,” Gallina Development — which also turned Chase Tower into The Metropolitan and Xerox Square into Innovation Square — has fitted them with LED lights.
Inside the old 6,883-square-foot, glass-enclosed bank space is another distinctive element: sawtooth ceilings. However, the most striking interior feature is a 130-foot dimensional mural by Rochester's John C. Menihan symbolizing the diversification of the Monroe County economy in the form of an intricate machine.
Before his death in 1992, Menihan was one of city’s most accomplished and prolific artists. His other works included murals for Rochester Telephone, R.T. French and Xerox. He also designed the St. Jerome stained glass window in the Lorette Wilmot Library at Nazareth University.
“It’s such a unique piece,” Gallina said of Menihan’s creation commissioned by Security Trust. Among other elements, it features representations of a mill stone for grinding flour, a yellow hexagon for photographic processes and the atomic structure of selenium for Xerography. “We’d keep it, no matter what the (building) use was.”
And that remains up in the air.
“We’d really love to find a use that had activity day and night, to be able to really activate the space, to bring people downtown, make it a destination but also provide a service for people that are living and working down here,” hence the restaurant and bar idea, which is being promoted anew on social media. Though Lauren Gallina said the company is open to other uses, including retail and office.
About six months before the pandemic hit, Gallina Development, which owns 3.5 million square feet of commercial real estate throughout the greater Rochester area, was in talks with a restaurateur and started emptying out the space. That included removing that row of vintage teller stations, which might have seemed well-suited to a bar setup but in reality couldn’t be repurposed, Lauren Gallina said.
Because of COVID, however, “That never came to fruition,” she said.
Subsequently, there have been conversations with potential business partners who have “lots of wonderful ideas,” she said. “But it comes down to dollars and cents and what people can commit to.”
The cost to lease is $18 a square foot, so $123,893 a year or $10,324.50 a month.
If a restaurant wanted to move in, a kitchen would have to be added.
“We’d work together to come up with a budget,” she said. “I think creative spaces like this are so unique, and it’s got to be the right user to make it really pop in the way that it could and should. But we’re definitely optimistic that we’ll find somebody that can make the investment and partner with us to really make the space come alive.”
Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: New restaurant, bar envisioned for former bank space in Rochester NY
