By By Adam Prestridge
It's no secret that First National Bank of Atmore has been undergoing a major renovation.
Thursday night at the Atmore Area Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours, bank president Shep Marsh let another cat out of the bag. He not only unveiled the plans for the bank's renovations, but also announced that the bank's name has changed to First National Bank &Trust.
"In addition to the building, we're going to do a little name tweaking," Marsh said. "We're still First National, just First National Bank &Trust. We've got a new logo and you'll see it on everything we do. We'll be phasing out the tree, the tree has been great, but we want to be a little more distinctive. The tree resembles strength and trust has a lot of strength as well. We have an excellent trust department and we want to show it off and are doing so in our name."
Design Build Concepts has been named the design build firm that will act as the projects general contractor and oversee the project, which will include a complete makeover of its exterior and interior.
Plans for the inside of the bank include reducing the teller line from 10 spaces to five, including drive up windows with more efficient equipment including a camera system with monitor in each lane that allows the customer and the teller to see each other. Also, individual offices will be bigger, the loan files will be consolidated into one place, the waiting area will improve and new accounts will be more private.
As for the second floor, the equipment room will be reduced in half thanks to less bulky equipment, the employee breakroom will be cut in half to make room for a employee training room and the trust department will be expanded.
"We're excited about it and hopefully we're going to live through it all," Marsh said.
More than 100 people attended the Business After Hours. Not only did visitors hear the news of the name change, but also on display were several architectural paintings and samples of the fabrics and carpets that will be used.
"I told several people we were thinking we would be showing off the finished product, but like everything else, as you get into it and it grows and grows," Marsh said. "Also, a picture is worth a thousand words and I think the pictures do that and give you a pretty good indication of the magnitude of what we're going to do."
Marsh said the renovation is a way for the bank to give back to the community that made it successful.
"We see it as an investment in Atmore," Marsh said. "Atmore made this bank what it is, this is an investment back into the bank."