By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — The four-story building formerly used by United Telephone west of Lake City Bank’s corporate headquarters in downtown Warsaw is about to undergo a brick-by-brick facelift.
Renovations are part of a $12 million transformation of what will be the bank’s future Innovation and Technology Center, and Davild Findlay, the bank’s chairman and chief executive officer, said it will include structural revisions that “will require us to peel off the facade of the building, brick by brick, and reinforce the structural components of the building and then use that exact same brick to come back and refinish the facade.”
Engineers with Weigand Construction were asked about that decision, and they called it “some of the highest quality brick we’ve ever seen,” Findlay recalled.
“So apparently, we bought a building with really good brick and we’re going to take if off, clean it and put it back on,” he said.
On top of a nicely improved exterior, the improvements are seen as key for the company.
While the bank has always been a “quick follower” on technology, Findlay said, “More importantly, we need to be innovative because we compete with some of the biggest banks in the Midwest, and it’s important that we’re constantly thinking about innovation and moving the business forward to ensure we stay competitive with those big banks.”
Lake City Bank’s downtown headquarters was renovated about ten years ago and is now a template for new offices, he said.
The new expansion will likely provide growth for the company for the next ten years.
Preserving the building’s history is more evidence of the company’s 153-year-old commitment to the downtown, where the bank has six buildings that will be home to more than 300 employees when the expansion is complete.
Findlay likes to say the bank has been in a growth mode for its entire existence, but it’s been much more pronounced in its geographical expansion since 1990, when it opened a branch in Elkhart County.
These days, the bank opens about two branches per year.
They opened their 55th office with one in Westfield two weeks ago.
Most of the offices are in northcentral and northeastern Indiana, but they have moved into the Indianapolis market in recent years. They now have a presence in 15 Indiana counties, with three of those in central Indiana
He said they’re seeing good growth in all areas, including Kosciusko County.
He was effusive about the local business climate, which has benefited from support from Zimmer Biomet and Orthoworx as well as other entities, but was especially complimentary about the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce and the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation. better known as KEDCO.
“We really have a dynamite team from a chamber of commerce and economic development perspective, and I think because of those two organizations, we punch above our weight on economic development.”
Mayor Jeff Grose and his administration have a long list of ideas that will help bolster and expand the downtown, Findlay said.
“That’s why it’s so important for Lake City Bank to be so supportive of what’s going on in downtown Warsaw,” Findlay said. “We’ve invested a substantive amount of money in our facilities, in our people, and in our technologies and our headquarters, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Findlay was asked about parking.
He said the bank supports plans by the city and county to construct a parking garage and believes it will be a benefit, but said the bank, with its large number of existing parking lots, won’t need to rely on the future structure.
“We’ve got our parking situation figured out already with the surface lots we’ve got,” he said.
As it turns out, the bank project will coincide with a major apartment construction project a few blocks to the west (on the old Owen’s property) for much of the next 12 months or so.
Perimeter fencing and traffic barriers were put up last week around both sites.
Renovations to the LCB’s future Innovation and Technology Center, he said, will cause some disruption for motorists, but will result in “an incredibly good facility for a long, long time.”
