A Safe Working Environment : Surplus of Former Bank Buildings Unlocks Creative Uses of Old Vaults

The bank executives trooping into Doug Boyd’s conference room to discuss a new advertising campaign seemed right at home.

Maybe that’s because the Melrose Avenue graphic arts office they were visiting used to be a bank. Its conference room is in the vault.

Inside there, Boyd speculates, “they felt safe.”

And it’s safe to say they aren’t the only ones who are looking at bank vaults in a whole new way these days.

The stately Boyd Communications office at the edge of Hollywood is one of hundreds of former Los Angeles-area bank and savings-and-loan offices that have been converted to new uses in the wake of mergers, moves and cutbacks in the financial services industry.

But cashing in on the surplus buildings has turned out to be harder than expected--especially for those who didn’t bank on getting stuck with a room-sized vault as part of the deal.

It can cost as much as $50,000 to demolish two-foot-thick, steel-reinforced concrete walls outfitted with a 2 1/2-ton, multiple-lock door. And that’s presuming the vault can be torn out without taking the rest of the building with it.

That has sent new owners of some empty banks and thrifts scurrying to find new uses for old vaults.

Some have been converted to wine cellars, print shops and computer rooms. Luckier landlords have leased to pawn shops, credit unions and loan companies that need secure places for cash and valuable documents.

A few have been turned into offices. Claustrophobic offices.

An empty savings and loan building in Malibu was used as a disaster assistance center last year. Public information officer John Treanor of the Office of Emergency Services ended up sitting at a desk inside its 12-foot-wide vault.

“I was nervous the first day, until somebody came and showed me how to keep the door from shutting,” Treanor acknowledged.

“They tied a rope around the door handle to secure it. And they taped over the latch part on the wall, too. I had no apprehension after that--I kind of enjoyed the privacy.”

In Brentwood, a former Bank of America branch has been reborn as a flower shop. Freshly cut roses, carnations and other blossoms are stored in the vault.

“Nobody ever steals our flowers,” joked Amanda Toland, manager of The Woods Fresh Flower Market on Gorham Avenue.

The vault is refrigerated and its combination locks have been disconnected. But some customers still think cold cash is inside: “People are very curious. We tell them we need it because our flowers are very expensive,” said sales clerk Dominique Wuth.

An old Security Pacific branch on Pine Avenue in Long Beach has been converted into a nightclub called the Vault. Customers walk through a vault door to get into part of the club.

A larger vault may eventually be used as a private dining room, said Rich Macello, the club’s beverage manager.

A former Century Savings and Loan branch in Malibu now houses a Jon Douglas Realty office. Its vault became the photocopy and fax room after its steel door was unbolted and hauled away. Landlord John Perenchio said the 5,000-pound door is in storage--awaiting the day when it can be put to use in something like a bank-themed restaurant.

Don Hecker, administrator of Jon Douglas’ commercial division, said there seems to be little demand beyond that for used bank-vault doors. New, they cost about $10,000. As scrap, they fetch about $50.

“There used to be a market for them, but banks aren’t expanding anymore. So old doors have become a nuisance,” said Hecker, who has converted an old savings and loan office in Ventura and is doing the same to a former thrift branch in Encino. He has also required landlords there to get rid of the doors.

But in Westchester, developer Alan Aratow said he was afraid to tamper with the three huge vault doors inside the Security Pacific branch he has subdivided into 11 shops and offices.

“It might wreck the floor if we tried to roll the doors out of here,” he explained.

Aratow instead is courting tenants who need secure storage space. Among them is a company that rents safe-deposit boxes to travelers who do not want to leave cash or jewelry in hotel safes.

Merchant Patricia Lyon, whose Buddies for Kids clothing shop is in the front of the Sepulveda Boulevard building, wishes that she’d rented one of the vault areas.

“I think it would have been cute to have a toy jail in there for children,” she said. “The space I have apparently used to be the bank’s new accounts section.”

Others have put vaults to good use.

A 68-year-old bank building on Vermont Avenue in Koreatown is headquarters for United States Credit Bureau, a collection agency that uses its 10-by-14-foot vault for storage of documents and cash.

Agency President Mel Shaw said his company has owned the building since 1947--making it one of Los Angeles’ premier bank recyclers. He said he has seen Northern California banks converted into restaurants where vaults are used as dining areas. One uses the slogan, “Put your mouth where your money used to be,” Shaw said.

“Mostly, though, vaults are a negative unless you can find perhaps a furrier or a jeweler or somebody dealing in precious metals or stamps,” said Tom Korey of Cushman & Wakefield, a Century City commercial realty firm that has found tenants for dozens of former banks and S & L branches.

Some of the former branches come with restrictive leases that require them to be rented to financial institutions, however. That explains why some buildings have sat empty for nearly three years.

Using a bank vault for something other than banking business requires careful planning, however, experts agree.

New ventilation ducts and telephone cables need to be drilled through the thick walls if the space is going to be inhabited. And steps must be taken to keep anyone from being accidentally locked inside.

“I think it’s dangerous to use one for any other use,” said Whitley Collins, a bank-lease expert for CB Commercial Real Estate in Los Angeles. “I don’t think it’s safe.”

Lee Kann agrees. He’s president of National Safe Co., a Fullerton company that specializes in the maintenance of vault doors and locks for banks.

“You can cut off your fingers if you slam a vault door,” Kann said. And even if the combination locks are disabled, it’s still possible for workers to become trapped if the door’s mechanical lock wheel is turned while they are inside.

Financial associations and regulatory agencies haven’t kept track of bank and S & L branches that have been abandoned--the Bank of America-Security Pacific merger alone closed at least 563 of them, mostly in California. But Kann estimates that as many as 400 branches just in Southern California have been shuttered in recent years.

“At first you had gas stations on every corner, then you had banks,” said Barry Rubens, chief executive of California Research Corp, a bank consulting firm in Santa Monica. “Now you have coffee houses on every corner.

“If you could only blend the coffee houses and empty bank buildings together, then you really would have liquid assets.”