Legg Mason’s name, long etched in the history of Baltimore’s financial industry, will be erased from its signature tower on the city’s waterfront this year.
The money-green glass tower that anchors Harbor East will be renamed for Franklin Templeton. The California-based mutual fund giant acquired the 121-year-old Legg Mason for $4.5 billion in July.
While the Legg Mason name will disappear, the firm’s work, as part of Franklin, will go on.
“We continue to remain committed to Baltimore and our employees there, as evidenced by our pending investment in new Franklin Templeton signage at 100 International Drive,” Matthew Walsh, a Franklin spokesman, said in an email.
The signage work will likely be finished this summer, Walsh said.
The 24-story skyscraper was built in 2009 to serve as Legg Mason’s global headquarters. The Inner Harbor landmark sits just east of the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore. It overlooks Harbor East Marina and houses street-level retailers J.Crew and Under Armour Brand House.
Besides Franklin Templeton, office tenants include Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Medifast, OneMain Financial and others. Hogan Lovells, an international law firm and one of the first tenants, renewed a 10-year lease earlier this month for more than 30,000 square feet on the 20th and 21st floors.
Legg had been founded in 1899 as George Mackubin & Co. on Redwood Street downtown. The company survived the Great Depression and the housing and financial crisis that led to the last recession. The firm grew through acquisitions and mergers and took on the name Legg Mason in 1970.
Franklin Resources, which operates through subsidiaries as Franklin Templeton in more than 165 countries, paid $50 per share of Legg Mason common stock in an all-cash transaction and assumed about $2 billion of Legg Mason’s outstanding debt. Franklin is best known for its consumer-oriented mutual fund business.
The deal created one of the world’s largest global investment managers.
But for Baltimore, the acquisition has meant the loss of another corporate headquarters and a loss of jobs.
Walsh on Tuesday said Franklin has mostly completed its previously announced plan to cut 8% of its global workforce as a result of the merger.
He declined to say how many of those cuts came from Baltimore, where Legg Mason had employed 250 people. Legg Mason had a global workforce of about 3,000 employees, many in offices in New York, Connecticut and California.
Franklin had said it would keep its headquarters in San Mateo, California, and keep a smaller presence in Baltimore.
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