Fidelity Bank has hit a bump in the process of bringing a new regional office to downtown Spartanburg.
The bank announced the purchase of 305 N. Church Street, where the former First Citizens Bank is located, in June 2023. After demolishing the building on site, they plan to build an 8,400-square-foot, two-story bank with a drive-thru, offices, and training facilities.
The site is located at the corner of North Church Street and East Daniel Morgan Avenue, across from the Spartanburg Marriott. It has been home to a bank since 1965 when the building currently on the site was built for First State Bank.
Preliminary plans for the bank were presented to the city’s Design Review Board on July 2. After deliberation, the board ultimately tabled the discussion, asking the applicant, Brian Murdoch, senior vice president and market executive at Fidelity Bank in Spartanburg, and the presenter, David McCutchen, president of McCutchen Engineering Associates, to return with a landscaping plan and more details on the parking plans.
Board members said that the presented designs do not meet some of the city’s requirements for pedestrian-forward urban design. For example, the building is set back with a small grassy area instead of flush with the sidewalk. It does not feature a corner entrance, now the preferred design for buildings on corners, because it allows for a direct primary entrance to the building from the sidewalk.
Board member Lukas Hauser noted that the design compared in the presentation to one built in Pinehurst, NC, was perhaps too suburban for downtown.
“It’s almost like they took the plan from that one and put the drive-thru on a different side and made very minor changes to it. But that seemed to be in the middle of a suburban parking lot, surrounded on all sides by the parking lot,” Hauser said. “This idea of taking that kind of Pinehurst parking lot, country club feel and putting right on this corner of downtown, it strikes me that with some tweaks it could lose that lawn… The AC Hotel or United Community Bank are examples where you take something and put it right up to the sidewalk and you create kind of a corner, and I think those have been more successful.”
Proposed solutions for the setback included eliminating it, which would require redesigning the parking area and drive-thru or hardscaping the setback, essentially extending the sidewalk.
During the presentation, McCutchen expressed interest in approaching the site differently because of its unique situation downtown.
“This site is kind of a one-off unicorn in that … it’s not going to have any neighbors. It was always a bank and is going to be a bank again,” McCutchen said. “I know the bank really likes the setback, and it's really a luxury to be able to not have to be squashed all the way out on that corner and give it a little more presence for all the traffic coming through this intersection.”
Fidelity Bank opened a downtown branch at 101 Lafayette St. in February 2023. If the proposed bank receives final approval and is built, the new bank will replace that facility. Preliminary renderings show a masonry brick building with mixed slate and copper roofing.
The applicants were encouraged to provide the requested information before the August board meeting. If they can provide the plans before August, the board may hold a special meeting to review them.
Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her atsswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg.
Most Popular
Comments / 0