Chase Bank Plans to Open New Downtown Branch in Spring

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Chase Bank plans to establish a new downtown office in the Stambaugh Building in spring 2025, roughly a year after a natural gas explosion tore through its branch in the Realty Tower, resulting in the death of an employee.

A certificate of plan approval issued by the Mahoning County Building Department and posted in a ground floor window at Stambaugh indicates that the bank will use 3,734 square feet of the building’s ground floor.

Contacted by email, Stephanie Gostomski, vice president, regional communications, for JPMorgan Chase, the bank’s parent company, confirmed that Chase planned to open a branch in the Stambaugh Building, which is occupied predominantly by the DoubleTree by Hilton Youngstown Downtown hotel.   

Huntington National Bank briefly operated a branch on the southeast side of the Stambaugh Building until the explosion, and it moved back into its previous space in the former Mahoning Building earlier this year.

“Construction is underway, and we hope to have it completed by next spring,” Gostomski said.

City officials are “excited and happy” that the bank is going to retain its downtown presence, said Stephanie Gilchrist, Youngstown economic development director. Locations other than Stambaugh had been under consideration, she said. 

“I know that their heart was to continue to have that footprint in the community,” she said.

Preserving Chase’s downtown presence is important, and there was concern following the explosion, said Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngtown/Warren Regional Chamber. The chamber is among the local organizations that are collaborating with the city on efforts to revive downtown. 

“They maintained a presence through the mobile unit they set up on Front Street,” Coviello said. “This, however, is the best news – a longtime, important downtown staple is committed to Youngstown long-term.”

Chase relocated from its legacy location at 6 Federal Plaza West – where the bank and its predecessors had been based for decades – in 2021 and remained there until the May 28 explosion.  

When Chase decided to relocate to Realty initially, the bank’s focus was on having more of a community bank feel, “where it was more than just making withdrawals and deposits but actually based on relationships,” Gilchrist said.  

In early June, Chase sited a mobile branch and temporary automated teller machine in the parking lot of the Covelli Centre to accommodate downtown customers. 

“We remain committed to the Youngstown community, which is why we are building a new branch,” Gostomski said. The bank will share more information as the opening date approaches.

With the planned opening of the Stambaugh Building branch, Chase or its predecessors will have had locations on three of the four corners of the Federal Street and Wick Avenue/Market Street intersection. Only the southwest corner of the intersection, where First National Bank has had a branch for years in the Central Tower Building, has not had a Chase-related branch.

Coming as part of the renewed focus on downtown in the wake of the explosion, ongoing road construction that downtown businesses have blamed for a downturn in business as well as the lingering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chase’s decision to remain downtown shows progress is being made with those efforts, Gilchrist said.

“We are really, as a city, excited because it gives us hope. And it shows us, as a city and a community, that we’re not in this alone,” she said. 

The success of recent shows at the Covelli Centre demonstrate that downtown Youngstown is vibrant again, and the impending reopening of Federal and Commerce streets is a symbolic milestone, Coviello said. He also expressed optimism that the models that brought Steelite International’s headquarters and encouraged Zoetic Global to site a refrigerant plant downtown could be replicated.  

“We have momentum,” he said. “We have a lot of confidence that the Economic Action Group’s strategic plan, along with the collaboration between the city, chamber and others, will lead us down a successful path.” 

Pictured at top: The Stambaugh Building in downtown Youngstown.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.