Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is putting its money where its Winnipeg is. Over the span of a couple of weeks, Canada’s largest bank announced plans that will see its signature “Leo” logo adorn two of the highest-profile buildings in the city.

Early last month, the bank announced a 10-year “naming rights” agreement with the Winnipeg Convention Centre, which is about to undergo an expansion and renovation expected to cost more than $180 million.

When the ribbon is cut on the 340,000-square-foot addition in January 2016, it will be known as the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg. The facility will be the fourth-largest publicly owned convention centre in Canada, with the capacity to accommodate up to 3,000 delegates for conventions.

A few days after that announcement, the bank revealed it had negotiated a deal for the “highest billboard” in Winnipeg – the outside space at the top of the skyscraper at 201 Portage Ave. The 34-storey building, the tallest in Winnipeg, has not sold the naming rights to RBC; just the space for signage. The building will continue to be known by its address, 201 Portage, but you can be sure it eventually will be identified on an everyday basis with the bank.

Alan Dunnett, regional director of wealth management for RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (DS), says the signage piece was added to DS’s lease agreement when his office decided to move into the top three floors of 201 Portage last year.

Dunnett says the signage will help with both the profile and recognition of RBC, DS’s parent bank, and its other divisions in Winnipeg. “If you talk to anybody in commercial real estate, signage on buildings has significant intrinsic value,” Dunnett says. “If you went to a building manager and said, ‘I want to put a sign up,’ it would cost a fair amount of money because it’s a permanent, high-profile branding.”

These two moves give RBC the naming rights and/or signage on two of the six highest-profile buildings in town. The others are the MTS Centre (home of the National Hockey League’s Winnipeg Jets), Investors Group Field (the new home of the Canadian Football League’s Blue Bombers) and the 360 Main St. and Richardson Building towers at Portage and Main.

“We’re obviously a major presence, in terms of financial institutions in the city,” Dunnett says. “But I can’t say our master plan has been to get our logo on every building in the city. It has evolved as opportunities have come up. If nothing else, it reflects our commitment to Winnipeg and how important it is to our business both on the banking and wealth-management sides.”

The RBC sign will be erected at 201 Portage, where the logo of one of the bank’s biggest competitors used to be. The 23-year-old building originally was built by Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Rob Johnston, RBC’s regional president, believes there will be numerous occasions to build up the bank’s $250-million book of business in Winnipeg – particularly through the deal with the convention centre, which is at the heart of a $600-million overhaul to Winnipeg’s downtown.

“The RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg will be the doorstep to the city,” Johnston says. “We want visitors to have a positive first impression of the city. But if they can also think positively about RBC, we think that gives us the inside track on some of the opportunities that are going to be increasingly coming to the city.”

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