Signs of Change : High-Rise Union Bank Building in Oxnard Being Renamed the Financial Plaza Tower
Granted, it was not the end of the world, said Jack Kaufman. But to him, the removal of the Union Bank sign from atop Martin V. (Bud) Smith’s 22-story office tower was a meaningful event, the end of an era in Oxnard.
“It’s pretty hard to get used to something like that,” said Kaufman, who runs the snack shop in the high-rise’s lobby. “I’ve been here for eight years. Union Bank was the first tenant, I was the second. It’s hard to tell someone where we’re at now. It’s no longer the Union Bank building.”
The familiar sign, looming above Oxnard’s skyline since the building went up in 1987, is on its way down, to be replaced by a sign for financial adviser Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
But the tower will not be renamed after its new tenant. Instead, it will be referred to as the Financial Plaza Tower so the name will not have to change again if there is another change in tenants, said Sue Van Camp of Martin V. Smith and Associates.
“Union Bank is no longer the tenant, so we’re opting for a more generic name,” Van Camp said.
The office tower--reportedly the tallest building between Los Angeles and San Jose--is located along the Ventura Freeway at Smith’s Oxnard Financial Plaza, near his 15-story Ventura County National Bank building.
Union Bank moved out about two years ago, Van Camp said, but the company was still paying to have its name atop the blue-glass tower.
Dean Witter will also pay rent for that privilege. The sign will probably be erected when the company moves into the building in June, Van Camp said.
Leaving the exclusive Tower Club on the building’s 21st floor Wednesday, a group of Roto-Rooter employees traded jokes about the name change.
“I think it should be named the Roto-Rooter building,” said Don Allen, who was visiting local franchises from the company’s headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa.
John Heard, a local Roto-Rooter employee, saw things differently.
“It’s a landmark,” Heard said. “For Oxnard, that put this city on the map. You could tell people from L.A. or Santa Barbara, ‘I’m (located) near the Union Bank building,’ and they would know where to go. Dean Witter isn’t as well-known.”
In the shadow of the tower at Oxnard’s College Park Estates neighborhood, residents said they didn’t even notice when workers scaled the Gargantuan building Wednesday to remove the four bank signs.
“We really don’t pay any attention to it anymore,” said Raul Tamayo, 45. “We don’t care at all.”
“I don’t really care,” said Robert Balderrama, 40. “If I don’t look up, I don’t even notice.”
