ESL headquarters headed downtown

Unveiled like fine artwork, the new designs have city officials salivating. "A few days ago, we had a very exciting Super Bowl, and you know what? Today is just as exciting," Mayor Duffy said.

Exciting on a number of fronts. Here's how the new headquarters of the 88 year-old credit union is expected to look. It'll be six-stories and energy efficient. Perhaps the best news of all for the city? Three hundred workers a day will buy their lunch and run their errands downtown, rather than in the suburbs.

"The location is literally one minute off I-490, it's an ideal, central location, for both our members and our employees," said ESL CEO Dave Fiedler.

A banner already marks the spot of the new headquarters which is at the corner of Woodbury and Chestnut. Right now, it's a city owned parking lot, and the great thing about this deal, the mayor says, is that it didn't cost the city anything.

"This is primarily a private investment in the city. ESL will build their corporate headquarters, will build their garage, this is the best kind of development," Duffy said.

And when you consider the city's struggle to reinvent it's economy, officials see great symbolism in ESL's decision to move downtown, rather than go with any of the thirty other sites it considered. "We've gone over the edge of trying to get ahead on developing downtown, now it's going to be selective about who we want to come down."