Business

Business Owners Are Committed to Improving Downtown Albemarle

Home Savings Bank is one of many businesses refurbishing buildings in downtown Albemarle.

Downtown Albemarle wasn’t even on CEO/President Ron Swanner’s radar when he was looking for a location for a new Home Savings Bank branch.

“Downtown never even crossed my mind when we were planning a new branch in late 2006‚” Swanner says. “We had already secured a site in another part of Albemarle and had gone as far as developing architectural drawings. But when the old First Union building on the downtown square became available‚ we changed all our plans and jumped at that site.”

Swanner says Home Savings Bank chose the former First Union Bank building location because he thinks it’s the top commercial business site in all of Albemarle.

“When this particular property became available at an affordable price‚ it was the obvious choice for us to make‚” he says. “We had recently opened a branch office in the little town of Oakboro and decided to inhabit an old downtown building there after refurbishing it. The overwhelming reaction we received from people in Oakboro was gratitude for coming downtown‚ so that’s what we are doing in Albemarle.”

Home Savings Bank has been renovating the former First Union site since April 2007.

“We hope to open in December [2007] with a Christmas tree in the lobby‚” Swanner says. “This will be a building that the downtown area will be proud of‚ and I hope it will be the beginning of a new energy and resurgence of interest in establishing businesses in downtown Albemarle.”

Vicki Coggins hopes so‚ too. The executive director of the Albemarle Downtown Development Corp. says things are coming together “slowly but surely” in the district‚ with several incentives available for building owners to improve their properties.

“We have façade‚ sign and landscape incentive programs in place‚ and one thing I’m working toward is getting property owners to transform some of the second and third floors of their buildings into residential apartments‚” Coggins says. “Downtown living is a hot trend these days‚ and it would be popular in downtown Albemarle.”

A thriving business success story in downtown Albemarle is 304 Pontiac Pointe‚ a restaurant situated in a former Pontiac dealership building in the Five Points area. In addition‚ across the street from the popular restaurant is a place that used to be known as Anderson Grocery.

“The Anderson Grocery building is now a bronze-sculpting studio upstairs and a bronze sculpture gallery downstairs‚” Coggins says. “Other downtown successes include an extensive renovation to the old Lillian Hosiery Mill building and the refurbishing of an old house that is now a ReMax real estate office – located next to Pontiac Pointe.”

In all‚ Coggins says about $10 million has been spent by property owners in the past few years to improve the look of downtown Albemarle.

“Yes‚ steadily things are coming together‚” she says. “There really is a new energy beginning to emanate from the downtown district.”

Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Ian Curcio

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