One of two houses that would be torn down for Franklin Federal’s planned branch. (Michael Schwartz)
Two out-of-town banks duking it out at Libbie and Patterson avenues might soon have a local contender stepping into the ring.
Franklin Federal Savings Bank wants to build a branch where two houses currently stand at 705 and 709 Libbie Ave.
Rick Wheeler, chief executive of the $1 billion bank, said the 3,800-square-foot branch would eventually replace a location less than two miles away at Village Shopping Center that has stood since 1954.
“That’s our biggest deposit branch, so it’s very important that we do it right and find the right location,” Wheeler said. “Libbie/Grove is an attractive area that’s going through a form of change. There’s a lot of interest in that corridor for development and upgrade.”
But first, the bank has to get through the Richmond Planning Commission and City Council.
It filed a special-use permit with the city to get the proper zoning on the residential properties. If the request is approved, landowner Howard C. Scott Rentals would lease the parcels to Franklin Federal.
The bank’s case will be heard Oct. 7 by the planning commission and will go before city council Oct. 14.
Wheeler said the bank has been working on plans for the branch for more than a year.
“We’ve responded to the city’s questions and hopefully have shown that we would be an attractive addition to the neighborhood,” Wheeler said.
The planned move to Libbie is a continuation of the bank’s strategy to shed its past as a mutual savings bank to become a more modern institution. That has included adding checking accounts and debit cards for the first time in its 80-year history and going public with a $138 million offering in 2011.
“As we pursue being more bank-like and having checking accounts and all the other products, we certainly are exploring the benefit of having a free-standing branch that has drive-through facilities and the typical configuration of a bank,” Wheeler said.
The new branch would sit within a stone’s throw of two larger competitors. Southeast banking giant BB&T and Chrisitiansburg-based StellarOne both have branches next door.
Less than a mile away, Middleburg Bank has a branch at 315 Libbie Ave. that it opened in 2013.
Wheeler said total costs for the planned branch have not been finalized. Timmons is civil engineer on the project, and Baskervill is the architect. The bank has not picked a contractor.
It will be the bank’s first new branch since it acquired a former Union First Market location in Mechanicsville last year.
Wheeler said the Libbie location would be its first from-scratch branch since it built its Innsbrook headquarters in 1992.
The bank will extend its lease at the Village Shopping Center at least a year and likely through spring 2015 as it continues slowly but surely through the process for the new branch, Wheeler said.
“It takes time to get things done,” he said. “We are an organization that likes to move prudently and deliberately.”
One of two houses that would be torn down for Franklin Federal’s planned branch. (Michael Schwartz)
Two out-of-town banks duking it out at Libbie and Patterson avenues might soon have a local contender stepping into the ring.
Franklin Federal Savings Bank wants to build a branch where two houses currently stand at 705 and 709 Libbie Ave.
Rick Wheeler, chief executive of the $1 billion bank, said the 3,800-square-foot branch would eventually replace a location less than two miles away at Village Shopping Center that has stood since 1954.
“That’s our biggest deposit branch, so it’s very important that we do it right and find the right location,” Wheeler said. “Libbie/Grove is an attractive area that’s going through a form of change. There’s a lot of interest in that corridor for development and upgrade.”
But first, the bank has to get through the Richmond Planning Commission and City Council.
It filed a special-use permit with the city to get the proper zoning on the residential properties. If the request is approved, landowner Howard C. Scott Rentals would lease the parcels to Franklin Federal.
The bank’s case will be heard Oct. 7 by the planning commission and will go before city council Oct. 14.
Wheeler said the bank has been working on plans for the branch for more than a year.
“We’ve responded to the city’s questions and hopefully have shown that we would be an attractive addition to the neighborhood,” Wheeler said.
The planned move to Libbie is a continuation of the bank’s strategy to shed its past as a mutual savings bank to become a more modern institution. That has included adding checking accounts and debit cards for the first time in its 80-year history and going public with a $138 million offering in 2011.
“As we pursue being more bank-like and having checking accounts and all the other products, we certainly are exploring the benefit of having a free-standing branch that has drive-through facilities and the typical configuration of a bank,” Wheeler said.
The new branch would sit within a stone’s throw of two larger competitors. Southeast banking giant BB&T and Chrisitiansburg-based StellarOne both have branches next door.
Less than a mile away, Middleburg Bank has a branch at 315 Libbie Ave. that it opened in 2013.
Wheeler said total costs for the planned branch have not been finalized. Timmons is civil engineer on the project, and Baskervill is the architect. The bank has not picked a contractor.
It will be the bank’s first new branch since it acquired a former Union First Market location in Mechanicsville last year.
Wheeler said the Libbie location would be its first from-scratch branch since it built its Innsbrook headquarters in 1992.
The bank will extend its lease at the Village Shopping Center at least a year and likely through spring 2015 as it continues slowly but surely through the process for the new branch, Wheeler said.
“It takes time to get things done,” he said. “We are an organization that likes to move prudently and deliberately.”