F&M Trust to move corporate headquarters from downtown Chambersburg
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Franklin Financial Services Corp. and its subsidiary F&M Trust plan to acquire a 67,000-square-foot, single-story Chambersburg building to move its corporate headquarters and operations center, according to L. Michael Ross, president of the Franklin County Area Development Corp.
Ross, who broke the news Thursday morning during a breakfast meeting of the Greencastle-Antrim Chamber of Commerce, said F&M will buy the former Danfoss Drives building at 1500 Nitterhouse Drive and, in turn, an arm of the development corporation will buy the current downtown location.
“F&M is going to use this to consolidate their operation into their corporate headquarters,” Ross said. “This is going to be an F&M campus. They are going to relocate their administrative function out of downtown Chambersburg into this building after it’s renovated over the next year.”
In a news release issued Thursday afternoon, F&M said the move will put the firm in a larger, state-of-the-art building on an 11-acre parcel partly in Chambersburg and Guilford Township.
The release said the building will house about 145 employees, with room to add more as the bank grows.
“F&M Trust’s story began in 1906 in downtown Chambersburg and, in many ways, it is bittersweet to move part of our team out of the downtown when there are so many new and exciting things happening,” Timothy G. Henry, president and CEO of F&M, said in the release. “Yet as the bank continues to grow, we need more space in order to continue to bring high-quality service to our customers.
“We are very happy that we are able to maintain our presence in Chambersburg, Guilford Township and Franklin County, as we are the only bank headquartered in this area.”
The 41,000-square-foot F&M property at 20 S. Main St. will be purchased for $3.3 million, Ross said.
“We are hoping to settle in December, and it will probably take them a year to do the renovations (at 1500 Nitterhouse Drive),” he said. “They will continue to operate out of 20 S. Main St. at least through 2020 and maybe early into 2021. When they relocate, they will still maintain that downtown presence with the first floor.”
Ross said the remainder of the building that sits on Memorial Square will be leased, ideally to professional-services companies that want to be in downtown Chambersburg.
“For F&M, this consolidates everything under one roof and on one floor,” he said. “They see an opportunity of being more of an employer-friendly bank and being able to build better collaboration among their different departments being on one floor.
“We are very excited that F&M has made a commitment in the community to expand their presence, create their corporate headquarters, and it’s very visible from (Interstate 81).”
“With this move and renovation, F&M Trust reaffirms its commitment to supporting the vitality of Chambersburg and Franklin County, and positions itself for future growth as an independent community bank,” Henry said.
With about $1.2 billion in assets, F&M Trust has 22 community offices in Franklin, Fulton, Fulton and Huntingdon counties.
Danfoss, which manufactures variable-frequency drives for motors used in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, as well as industrial applications, announced in January 2018 that it planned to close its Chambersburg location by the end of the year, putting 70 people out of a job