Franklin Federal Savings Bank is moving to a former Union First Market Bank branch on Bell Creek Road, left, from its location at Hanover Square Shopping Center. (Photos by Michael Schwartz)
A bank’s vacant branch in Mechanicsville is getting new life from the competition.
Franklin Federal Savings Bank closed Dec. 31 on the purchase of a former Union First Market Bank branch on Bell Creek Road and will relocate there from a Franklin branch less than a mile away.
Innsbrook-based Franklin Federal paid Union $945,000 for the 2,400-square-foot branch, according to Hanover County records. It sits on about two acres at 7279 Bell Creek Road, in a busy retail section between Mechanicsville Turnpike and Cold Harbor Road.
Union closed the branch in May along with three others across the state. Union predecessor First Market Bank built the branch on Bell Creek Road in 2005.
Franklin Federal for almost 20 years has occupied a storefront just up the road in the Hanover Square Shopping Center.
Rick Wheeler, the bank’s president and chief executive, said it jumped at the chance to pick up the seven-year-old freestanding location.
“It’s a short distance relocation,” Wheeler said. “A really good golfer could probably hit a tee shot to it” from the bank’s current branch.
The drive-up teller window and parking lot were part of the draw, Wheeler said.
“We’re not doing it to get more space. We’re doing it for the convenience of access,” he said. “It was a good opportunity for us to pick a well located branch.”
The bank’s lease at Hanover Square expires in June, Wheeler said. Franklin Federal will look to have the new branch open in the second quarter. It will do some light modifications to the branch, including new signage.
Union vacated the Bell Creek Road branch in favor of two other Union locations nearby, one in the Martin’s at 7324 Bell Creek Road and another at 8300 Bell Creek Road.
Union’s sale of the branch marks a string of real estate deals it closed leading up to the end of 2012.
In addition to the four branches it closed in May, Union in mid-December closed another four locations and sold two pieces of property in the Fredericksburg area.
The deal also continues a recent streak of branch shuffling.
Tappahannock-based EVB in September pulled the plug on an underperforming branch in Bowling Green and began construction on a branch in Colonial Heights.
StellarOne Bank in early 2012 took over a former BB&T branch at the corner of Libbie and Patterson avenues.
And Middleburg Bank in June announced plans to move into a vacant Wachovia/Wells Fargo branch on Libbie Avenue.
With $1.07 billion in assets, Franklin Federal is shedding its past as a mutual savings bank – a throwback institution that doesn’t have checking accounts or ATMs – to become a more modern bank.
The first step was in mid-2011, when it created a publicly trading parent company and raised $138 million in a public offering.
Wheeler said checking accounts will be instituted for the first time at the 80-year-old bank in the next three to six months. It is still weighing its options on how and where to roll out ATMs.
The new Bell Creek branch will be Franklin Federal’s first new full-service branch in about a decade.
It has eight branches, including its headquarters in Innsbrook. Five of its branches are freestanding. It has another storefront location at the Village Shopping Center on Patterson Avenue and Three Chopt Road and a small office in Imperial Plaza, a senior living development off Bellevue Avenue.
The bank has just under 100 employees and turned a profit of $6.48 million in fiscal 2012.
Franklin Federal Savings Bank is moving to a former Union First Market Bank branch on Bell Creek Road, left, from its location at Hanover Square Shopping Center. (Photos by Michael Schwartz)
A bank’s vacant branch in Mechanicsville is getting new life from the competition.
Franklin Federal Savings Bank closed Dec. 31 on the purchase of a former Union First Market Bank branch on Bell Creek Road and will relocate there from a Franklin branch less than a mile away.
Innsbrook-based Franklin Federal paid Union $945,000 for the 2,400-square-foot branch, according to Hanover County records. It sits on about two acres at 7279 Bell Creek Road, in a busy retail section between Mechanicsville Turnpike and Cold Harbor Road.
Union closed the branch in May along with three others across the state. Union predecessor First Market Bank built the branch on Bell Creek Road in 2005.
Franklin Federal for almost 20 years has occupied a storefront just up the road in the Hanover Square Shopping Center.
Rick Wheeler, the bank’s president and chief executive, said it jumped at the chance to pick up the seven-year-old freestanding location.
“It’s a short distance relocation,” Wheeler said. “A really good golfer could probably hit a tee shot to it” from the bank’s current branch.
The drive-up teller window and parking lot were part of the draw, Wheeler said.
“We’re not doing it to get more space. We’re doing it for the convenience of access,” he said. “It was a good opportunity for us to pick a well located branch.”
The bank’s lease at Hanover Square expires in June, Wheeler said. Franklin Federal will look to have the new branch open in the second quarter. It will do some light modifications to the branch, including new signage.
Union vacated the Bell Creek Road branch in favor of two other Union locations nearby, one in the Martin’s at 7324 Bell Creek Road and another at 8300 Bell Creek Road.
Union’s sale of the branch marks a string of real estate deals it closed leading up to the end of 2012.
In addition to the four branches it closed in May, Union in mid-December closed another four locations and sold two pieces of property in the Fredericksburg area.
The deal also continues a recent streak of branch shuffling.
Tappahannock-based EVB in September pulled the plug on an underperforming branch in Bowling Green and began construction on a branch in Colonial Heights.
StellarOne Bank in early 2012 took over a former BB&T branch at the corner of Libbie and Patterson avenues.
And Middleburg Bank in June announced plans to move into a vacant Wachovia/Wells Fargo branch on Libbie Avenue.
With $1.07 billion in assets, Franklin Federal is shedding its past as a mutual savings bank – a throwback institution that doesn’t have checking accounts or ATMs – to become a more modern bank.
The first step was in mid-2011, when it created a publicly trading parent company and raised $138 million in a public offering.
Wheeler said checking accounts will be instituted for the first time at the 80-year-old bank in the next three to six months. It is still weighing its options on how and where to roll out ATMs.
The new Bell Creek branch will be Franklin Federal’s first new full-service branch in about a decade.
It has eight branches, including its headquarters in Innsbrook. Five of its branches are freestanding. It has another storefront location at the Village Shopping Center on Patterson Avenue and Three Chopt Road and a small office in Imperial Plaza, a senior living development off Bellevue Avenue.
The bank has just under 100 employees and turned a profit of $6.48 million in fiscal 2012.