significance. In 1982, PSFS merged with the Western Savings Fund Society and expanded into other financial services. In September 1985, the bank began doing business as Meritor Financial Group, of which PSFS became a subsidiary. Meritor's aggressive expansion in the 1980s led to the company losing millions of dollars in new business ventures. In 1989 Meritor sold 54 of its PSFS branches and the PSFS name to Mellon Bank. The deal went into effect in 1990 and on May 21 of that year the building's neon sign was turned off. Meritor said that having sold the name it was inappropriate to light the sign. Turning off the sign provoked outrage and protest from the public, historians, and architecture buffs. As a result, Meritor and Mellon Bank agreed to relight the sign and keep it lit. Meritor said, "We agreed that it was in the best interest of the city to relight it." In the late 1980s, an office building boom in the Market Street West neighborhood of Center City was attracting tenants looking for larger office space away from the older PSFS Building. By 1992, the building was 85 percent vacant and in December of that year the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seized Meritor Financial Group and sold off the rest of its bank branches to Mellon Bank. The FDIC took control of Meritor's remaining assets including the PSFS Building. The FDIC was not the sole owner of the building since Meritor had, by the 1990s, sold off interest in the building to several partners. Hotel conversion By 1994, the PSFS Building was looking frayed and much of Meritor's furniture and equipment was sold off at auction by the FDIC in 1993. That same year, the Pennsylvania Convention Center opened one block away from the PSFS Building and numerous new hotels were appearing around the city. Originally thinking of turning the PSFS Building into apartments, developer Carl Dranoff decided a hotel would be best after noticing a Marriott being built across the street. Dranoff hired Bower Lewis Thrower Architects who created a plan, which he took to commercial developer Ronald Rubin of the Rubin Organization. Rubin took over the project and hired Dranoff to oversee it. Rubin first approached Hyatt and after negotiations that lasted a year Hyatt decided to build an entirely new property at Penn's Landing instead. Rubin then approached the Loews Hotels chain. On April 11,