Drawings offer a glimpse of ProMedica office plans

Steam plant has sat vacant for decades

The cavernous interior of the former Toledo Edison Steam Plant in downtown Toledo is expected to get new life as ProMedica’s headquarters. ProMedica said it would create a multifloor, modern-looking office building inside the former power plant. However, tax credits and adequate parking are two areas that need to be worked out.

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ProMedica headquarters’ concept images show what the company has planned for the facility formerly owned by Toledo Edison Co.

ProMedica officials have released interior drawings of its proposed new corporate headquarters downtown in the former Toledo Edison Steam Plant, and it also has hired someone to spearhead the project that is expected to take several years to complete.

Robin Whitney, former director of the Toledo Public Utilities Department, is now the vice president of property acquisition and development. Ms. Whitney said ProMedica is defining what the space will look like to accommodate the 700 administrative employees who will work in the riverfront facility.

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PHOTO GALLERY: Planned ProMedica headquarters downtown

The 119-year-old facility, formerly owned by Toledo Edison Co. and still owned by developer David Ball, has sat vacant for nearly 30 years. The health-care company would create a multifloor, modern-looking office building inside the former power plant connected to the KeyBank building. The two buildings will be connected by some type of walkway, likely on the ground level, and the KeyBank building will be upgraded to create a more modern feel, Ms. Whitney said. Both companies will share the space.

“If you look at the steam plant from Summit Street or Promenade Park, the building won’t look different in any way because that’s the historic side of the building,” Ms. Whitney said.

The cavernous interior of the former Toledo Edison Steam Plant in downtown Toledo is expected to get new life as ProMedica’s headquarters. ProMedica said it would create a multifloor, modern-looking office building inside the former power plant. However, tax credits and adequate parking are two areas that need to be worked out.

“We are going to put four stories in the building and a nice staircase that will keep an open vista to the historic wall.”

ProMedica officials allowed news photographers inside the building Thursday to document the current facility.

One of the sticking points in moving forward is finding parking for ProMedica employees. ProMedica officials would like to build an underground parking structure adjacent to Promenade Park on the site of the former Federal Building.

“We are trying to determine how deep can we go underground, what are the options for going up, how many spaces can we fit there, and if not, what are the other options downtown we can explore,” Ms. Whitney said.

The move to a new campus — which would include consolidating about 100 employees from the health system’s Richards Road corporate headquarters, office space elsewhere in Toledo, and from some locations outside the city limits — would be the largest influx of jobs downtown in decades.

Contact Marlene Harris-Taylor at mtaylor@theblade.com or 419-724-6091.