The building was originally designed to be the headquarters of the Banco Banespa, but management considered it to be far from São Paulo's financial center, at the time located on Rua Direita and 15 de Novembro, just over 1 km from Praça Ramos. Santa Casa de Misericórdia had a building in that area, more precisely on Rua João Brícola, and in this way the property exchange was carried out with Banespa, and Santa Casa became the owner of the building.[3] The building became notorious for housing the Mappin department store.[5]
The building remained empty between 2003 and 2004, when Extra had given up on the location because it deemed the rent, then set at R$600,000, too high.[6] In 2019, the building was sold to São Carlos Empreendimentos e Participações (SCEP), a company headed by billionaires Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Beto Sicupira. Casas Bahia became tenants, but in 2023 left the building.[5]
In April 2023, the building was sold for R$71.5 million. SCEP did not reveal who the buyer was, but the building will house the Serviço Social do Comércio's new headquarters.[4] SESC began renovating the building, with the aim of transforming it into an organization museum. The building is expected to be ready in 2027. In October 2023, it was announced that the building would be partially reopened to the public, with exhibition space about the history of SESC.[4]
