Frank E. Mckinney Jr., chairman of Bank One Indiana, began planning for the building now known as Salesforce Tower in 1969, when his financial institution was known as American Fletcher National Bank, but groundbreaking did not occur until June 1987. The 701-foot-high structure at 111 Monument Circle was constructed on the site of the Hume-Mansur Building, which was demolished in 1980. The building also replaced the Board of Trade Building and Bankers Trust Building. Although planned to house American Fletcher, the bank sold to Bank One in 1986. Thus, the building opened in 1990 as Bank One Tower.

View of the Indianapolis Skyline centered on the Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in Indianapolis.
Salesforce Tower, 1989 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

In 2004, J. P. Morgan Chase acquired Bank One. To reflect the new ownership, the building was renamed Chase Tower in 2004. The Tower changed names once again in 2017 to Salesforce Tower after the software company consolidated its local workforce, which previously had been scattered in several locations across downtown, in the building.

The Tower occupies a full city block between Meridian and Pennsylvania streets, bounded on the north by Ohio Street. It has 51 stories, 48 of which are designated as office space. Massachusetts architect Hugh Stubbins of Stubbins Associates designed the building. The Indianapolis firm of Huber, Hunt and Nichols served as construction manager, and the Galbreath Company of Columbus, Ohio, was the original developer.

A view of a tall skyscraper.
Salesforce Tower, then known as Bank One Tower, when construction was nearing completion in 1989. Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

Stubbins, who is most noted for his design of the Citicorp Building in Manhattan, expressed his desire for the Bank One Tower to serve as the terminus of the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza. The roofline of the tower reflects that of the World War Memorial. The exterior of the building is sheathed in granite quarried in Spain and Sweden and cut in Italy. The pyramidal roof is topped by twin antennae spires that allow the building to reach a height of 811 feet. One of these antennae is a communications antenna. The other is merely decorative.

In January 2021, Oklahoma-based Square Deal Investment Management purchased the building for $192.5 million.

Revised March 2021
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