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When a ribbon is broken Tuesday for Cincinnati’s newest and tallest skyscraper, executives of two Fortune 500 firms will share pride in a project that even a historic recession couldn’t stop.

Leaders of insurance giant American Financial Group Inc. and developer Western Southern Financial Group have worked for more than five years to bring the 41-story Great American Tower at Queen City Square out of the ground.

The waiting ended Tuesday, 1/11/11 at 1:11 p.m., when up to 250 of Cincinnati’s top business and government leaders gathered at the corner of Fourth and Sycamore streets to officially open the $320 million tower. Nationwide, it’s the largest office tower scheduled to open this year.

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“People tend to forget over the years that American Financial Group and Western Southern have brought new businesses and many jobs to this city,” said Ellen van der Horst, president and CEO of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Now these two firms have joined forces to keep jobs in the city and continue their contribution to the vitality of this region.”

For American Financial – parent of Great American Insurance Group and the tower’s main tenant – the occasion is another milestone for the firm that’s helped shape Cincinnati’s business community for more than a century.

Starting next week, the company will begin the six-month journey of moving 2,500 employees into its new world headquarters.

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“We are pleased to continue our long-standing presence in downtown Cincinnati,” said Carl H. Lindner III, co- president and co-CEO at American Financial. “It gives our family and employees great pride to know that the Great American Insurance Group brand will be part of the Cincinnati skyline for years to come, highlighted at the top of this impressive new building and visible in all directions entering downtown.”

The company’s history dates to 1887 with the founding of Great American Insurance Co. in downtown Cincinnati. Today, the firm has grown into a financial empire focused primarily on selling property and casualty insurance. Its assets are valued in excess of $32 billion.

“An effort this large requires the talents of many to complete, and we are blessed to be part of the team that has made it possible,” said S. Craig Lindner, firm co-president and co-CEO.

Deals got done

Getting this far has taken the time and talents of Cincinnati’s top deal makers.

Western Southern chairman and president John Barrett said he began conversations about a high-rise tower with Craig and Carl Lindner nearly five years ago.

His pitch to the Lindners included a vision he says was shared with the late William J. Williams, the former Western Southern chairman who died at age 93 in August 2009.

“We had a long-term vision to make Cincinnati a world-class city,” Barrett said. “To do that you have to have world-class buildings. We all wanted the city to feel good about itself.”

Initially, Barrett said, leaders at American Financial told him that they had always envisioned building their own headquarters

“My concern was about them staying downtown,” Barrett said. “But they were great. They said, ‘John, let’s agree that we’ll do the deal if our guys can make the numbers work.’”

Without American Financial’s commitment to lease the majority of the space, landing financing for a multi-million-dollar project would have been impossible.

A few handshakes and a year’s worth of number-crunching, and the deal was done.

“I’m exceptionally close to Carl Lindner, the father, and we never talked about this deal for that whole year,” Barrett recalled. “I think that shows you a couple of things: That he totally trusts his sons, they run their businesses and they have Cincinnati’s future in mind.”

In December 2007, the grand plan for the 665-foot building was unveiled to the public.

All told, American Financial has committed to a 15-year lease, with renewal options, for 22 floors covering more than half of the tower’s 800,000 square feet.

To finance the deal, the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority issued $225 million in bonds and will ultimately be the owner of the tower. Western Southern, which has contributed $38 million to the project, holds the primary master lease. To round out the funding, Cincinnati is providing $54 million in tax increment financing and another $3.8 million in the form of a grant.

Still much to do

Tuesday’s ceremony, however, is “by no means a signal that the moving is done,” said Keith Jensen, senior vice president at American Financial.

On average, the firm will move 100 to 150 employees into the new tower each week over the next six months.

The move is one of the largest seen downtown in recent decades. American Financial will be moving employees out of three other downtown office towers, following plans in the making for more than two years.

“Every single thing that we do is being touched by this. We have to change addresses on letter heads, business cards,” Jensen says. “Then there are enormous things like scheduling all the materials and furnishings that need to be moved. It really is an intricate process.”

Among the signature spaces in the tower will be an entire level devoted to Great American’s in-house employee training. The state-of-the-art space will seat up to 300 people for programs catered to rising stars, new employees and others.

“It really will enable us to use new technology well in a university setting,” said Karen Holly Horrell, a senior vice president at American Financial. “The space also gives us the opportunity to broaden our reach, and we’ll have even better collaboration with our employees and managers who are outside of Cincinnati.”

A completely new addition to the company’s office plan will be a medical clinic where employees can get regular blood pressure screenings, check-ups or pick up routine prescriptions.

“It really falls in line with our overall initiative to promote good health and welfare for our employees,” Jensen said.

The space will be an extension of a company-wide health campaign dubbed Know Your Numbers, a program that encourages employees to get regular health screenings, eat healthily and exercise. Upwards of 70 percent of the firm’s employees are actively engaged in the program.

Longer term, American Financial leaders say the new tower’s open floor plans create opportunities for new efficiencies and synergies among employee divisions that were difficult when people were spread across three downtown buildings.

“I suspect that when we look back five years from now, we’ll have discovered benefits that we haven’t even considered,” Jensen said. “I love that we are starting to see come to life what has long been a vision and a dream of so many. We know this year will present many demands on all of us. But we all are very excited about the opportunities.”