US Bank on Far South Side (Chicago, Pittsburg: fit in, real estate, rent)

[Chicago_Guy312]

Have any of you seen the large US Bank on the far south side near 111th and the Bishop Ford expressway?

I'm not sure why I can't stop thinking about it, but it's just so bizarre. A friend of mine and I were checking out Pullman this last weekend, and we saw what looks like a high rise for US Bank all the way out there in a field.

It's just strange because I remember thinking to myself, "Why isn't that in the Loop?" It looks decently tall, maybe 10 or 15 stories and could easily fit in out in the western suburbs. It just looks so out of place on the far south side of the city where it's mostly industrial.

Does anyone know what they do there? Does anyone even know what I'm talking about? How'd US Bank pick such a random location?

[ChiNaan]

I've always found that to be odd, too, since the whole purpose of high rises is to build up in dense areas where it's too expensive to build out. It would have surely been cheaper for them to build a short building with a larger footprint to get the same square footage of office space.

My guess is that it's more of an advertising/marketing thing to have a big easily noticeable building with their logo on it right by a busy expressway. The fact that we're talking about it (and that everyone probably knows the building you're talking about) could be evidence that it worked. It doesn't make me want to bank with them, though.

[Vlajos]

It used to be Pullman Bank.

[chet everett]

There used to be dozens of smaller banks in Illinois and they often grew by literally having the laws of Illinois written in such a way to make it impossible for larger "coast to coast" type banks to make any money in the state -- I think that ATMs were classified as "branch banks" until sometie in the 1980s...

Anyhow I think was like a "pay back" thing to a certain powerful southside state rep -- he owned the land or had a deal with a company and as "thanks" the place was built.

I think the original bank was like Steel City National or Drovers or MidCity one of the other banks that US Bank gobbled up indirectly through mergers and aquistions. Of course the office building was an "asset" of the previous bank and the real estate managers at US Bank know that no one in their right mind will ever rent space out in the middle of nowhere so they occupy it and the signage is effectively a "bill board"...


InstitutionHistory

InstitutionHistory

InstitutionHistory

Originally Posted by Chicago_Guy312

Have any of you seen the large US Bank on the far south side near 111th and the Bishop Ford expressway?

I'm not sure why I can't stop thinking about it, but it's just so bizarre. A friend of mine and I were checking out Pullman this last weekend, and we saw what looks like a high rise for US Bank all the way out there in a field.

It's just strange because I remember thinking to myself, "Why isn't that in the Loop?" It looks decently tall, maybe 10 or 15 stories and could easily fit in out in the western suburbs. It just looks so out of place on the far south side of the city where it's mostly industrial.

Does anyone know what they do there? Does anyone even know what I'm talking about? How'd US Bank pick such a random location?

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

It used to be Pullman Bank.

Pullman Bank of Commerce & Industry

There was a merger recorded in 1997 of Pullman Bank of Commerce and Pullman Bank & Trust -- last office was actually a Norwood Park branch... State of Illinois : Department of Financial and Professional Regulation

Looks like US Bank got it when Park National

[ChiNaan]

Coast-to-coast type banks didn't really exist in the U.S. (at least not as we know them now) until interstate deregulation by the feds in the 90's.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Coast-to-coast type banks didn't really exist in the U.S. (at least not as we know them now) until interstate deregulation by the feds in the 90's.

Many states had reciprocity agreements well before the Federal '94 Interstate Banking Act...

The "Section 20" subsidaries approved by the FRB in '87 was merely a formalization of policies that had allowed banks to securitize their commercial loan assets as early the 70's under OCC rules Securitization & CDOs with a certain infamous Ilinois bank being noted as the innovator of such activity that effectively gave them the ability to borrow & lend across the country, though due to their own problems they collapsed and were absorbed by BofA which at the time was still headquartered in CA...

Charlotte and Pittsburgh were well know centers of "big plan" banking in the late 70s -- How Charlotte became a banking giant, outpacing Pittsburgh's banks - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and likely would have expanded the retail presence of such banks from sea-to-sea except for events beyond their control. The things that SLOWED that national expansion including the Texas Savings & Loan meltdown / "Keating Five" scandal in the 80s Keating Five - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia as well as the overly ambitious consumer banking efforts of Sears -- Discover Card - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which used its ownership DE based Greenwood Bank to wiggle past restrictive laws in Illinois...

[marothisu]

Anyone have a picture of this? I have not seen it or just can't remember...sounds interesting.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Many states had reciprocity agreements well before the Federal '94 Interstate Banking Act...

Okay. The three states I lived in prior to '94 (none of which were Illinois) only had banks based in those states, though. For the most part banks were even based in the actual town they were located in, in my experience. Just saying it was more a matter of Federal law than Illinois law that kept banks within state lines.

[chet everett]

The FACT that Sears went to the trouble to buy a bank in Delaware and that Continental invented a whole category of financial asset demonstrates pretty conclusively that Illinois' retrograde banking system was a barrier to national expansion. Need further proof? How about the fact that the old Fist Nationnal Bank had to get acquired by OH based BankOnd before it was a platform for expansion an eventual acquisition of JpM Chase...US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi, BofA -- all bought out Illinois based banks. Really this stuff is indesputable. Towns in Iowa had ATMs in the 70s when Illinois law had prohibitions against such things...

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Okay. The three states I lived in prior to '94 (none of which were Illinois) only had banks based in those states, though. For the most part banks were even based in the actual town they were located in, in my experience. Just saying it was more a matter of Federal law than Illinois law that kept banks within state lines.