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But will there be a new Unisys world headquarters in Center City without the 16-foot-tall signs on the 37th and 38th floors?
The Fortune 500 company played coy yesterday. Unisys vice president Lawrence Wieser told the ZBA that his company might try to find a tenant to take over its 10-year lease in the building at 16th and Chestnut streets if it didn't get to hang its logos.
Mayor Nutter, in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, contacted the company after the ZBA's unanimous vote. He hopes the company will push forward with its relocation from Blue Bell, Montgomery County, even without the logos.
"The city is bigger than that and I think Unisys is bigger than that," said Nutter, who strongly supported the company's request. "They're still very positive about Philadelphia. We still have a more than great shot at having Unisys in Philadelphia."
Unisys spokesman Jim Kerr said after the vote that his company has held off on office renovations at Two Liberty Place and won't be ready to move in when the lease starts in January.
Nutter's administration values the corporate presence because it would bring more than 220 jobs with an average salary of $186,000 and position the city as a place where high-tech firms can recruit skilled workers and show off to international customers.
The proposed logos on the 58-story building's east and west facades would have far exceeded what the city's code allows for sign size and height. The company, which needed to prove a "hardship" would exist for the building without the logos, said it could still use the office space.
"We recognize and support the efforts to grow, develop and attract business to our city," ZBA chairwoman Susan Jaffe read from a statement written by the board before the vote. "Although there are currently efforts under way to amend the zoning code, the role of the board is to enforce the current zoning code."
Logo opponents included the developers who recently converted the building's top 19 floors into high-end condos and residents who bought homes there, along with Cigna, the largest corporate tenant in Two Liberty Place.
They raised concerns that the giant red letters would reflect back into the building from low-hanging clouds and from the surfaces of nearby buildings. The developers also worked to change the perception of Two Liberty Place from just an office building, according to Richard Oller, a consultant hired for that purpose.
"People do not want to live in an office building," said Oller, who bought the condo that would have been above the "I" in one of the Unisys signs. "They don't want to live in the Unisys building."
The developer, The Falcone Group of Boca Raton, Fla., now hopes to put the dispute to rest.
"It's unfortunate that it had to come to this," said Falcone vice president Albo Antenucci. "We welcome Unisys as a tenant. We hope that they still decide to move into the space and let bygones be bygones." *
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