Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | August 21, 2023 | wbjournal.com the T&G logo from atop the Mercantile Center. Once the removal is complete, the only logo will be the building's own branding. In a midsize real estate market like Worcester, which company's logo adorns prominent tall office buildings like the Mercantile Center oen is tied to what business is leasing the most space, and companies usually don't have to pay extra for the right to have their signage on buildings. And as the commercial real estate market shis, companies institute work-from-home policies, and brands are acquired by larger companies, the result is a hodgepodge of branded office towers in Worcester, including one whose compa- ny no longer occupies the building and another where the branded company is leasing fewer offices. BY TIMOTHY DOYLE WBJ Staff Writer F or 11 years, the Telegram & Gazette name was part of Worcester's skyline. When the paper of record in Central Massachusetts moved into one of the tallest buildings in the city at 100 Front St. in 2012, its substantial lease of office space enabled the media company to put its logo at the top of the 20-story building. In a city with brand logos on a handful of tall buildings, the Telegram's was the highest. at high profile started to come to an end in July, when the newspaper's parent company – Virginia-based Gan- nett – signed a much smaller lease in the building and crews began removing Additionally, instead of tall of- fice buildings being named aer the businesses that occupied them like the originally named e Second State Mutual Life Building at 340 Main St. or e Guaranty Bank & Trust Building at 370 Main St., owners and developers of Worcester's prominent buildings are creating their own branding, designed to set these facilities apart to entice potential tenants, such as the case with e Mercantile Center and e Glass Tower at 446 Main St. "It sends a message to the tenant mar- ket that you are serious," said Charles "Chip" Norton, managing director of the Mercantile Center owner, Franklin Realty Advisors of Wellesley. The value proposition In the Worcester real estate market, putting a company sign on an office building is oen a function of the size of the lease, rather than purchasing naming rights like at the Polar Park stadium or the DCU Center arena, said Will Kelleher, principal at Worces- ter real estate brokerage Kelleher & Sadowsky. Signage rights can be used in negotiations to sweeten the deal when trying to get a tenant to sign a lease in a building. While the tenant doesn't pay directly for signage rights, it does pay for the sign itself, installation, maintenance, and eventually removal, Kelleher said. e value of putting a company's name on top of a prominent building is immeasurable, said Ryan Chamberlain, vice president at Synergy Investments, which owns buildings around Massa- chusetts including the Glass Tower at 446 Main St. in Worcester. People will see the company logo from most places around the city, including I-290, which cuts through Worcester. "You can't put a dollar figure on that," said Chamberlain. Some businesses are willing to pay a higher rental rate for the right to show their brand atop a building, Chamber- lain said. If the right tenant came along and took a significant lease at e Glass Tower, Synergy would be receptive to putting a company's name atop the office building Signage rights can be handed down with a lease through acquisitions, as is the case with M&T Bank at the 120 Front St. office complex. e Buffalo bank took over the lease and signage rights dating back to when Flagship Bank leased 50,000 square feet in the office building. e rights were handed down to People's United Bank, which was acquired by M&T in 2022. M&T then renegotiated the number and positions of the signs at 120 Front St. as it reduced its leased space in the building, Norton said. A bank with a retail location like M&T will want as much exposure as possible, but not all tenants find value in advertising their presence, Kelleher said. A medical tenant with administra- tive offices may not want to advertise its presence to avoid confusion for people seeking medical attention. e U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is a tenant at 120 Front St. but does not advertise its presence on the building's exterior. No longer the Unum Building A block away from the Mercantile Center, the office building One Mercan- tile presents a complication of branding a building with a tenant's name. One Mercantile is owned by Benderson De- velopment of Florida and managed by Franklin Realty Advisors. It was built for Tennessee-based insurance com- pany Unum and was constructed with large Unum signs atop the building. In 2021, Unum changed its strat- egy and switched the 400 employees who worked in the Unum Building to remote work. e company still holds the lease to the building but Franklin Realty and Kelleher & Sadowsky need- ed to sublease the space in a structure designed to be a single-tenant office building. e building was rebranded as One Mercantile aer its address, and new signage was added at street level to Branding the sky Companies have been putting their names on Worcester's tallest buildings for decades, while the market constantly shis PHOTO | CHRISTINE PETERSON Health insurer Unum has vacated the Unum Building, even though it holds the lease. The tower has since been rebranded as One Mercantile.

• Cover