BOARDMAN, Ohio – Jim Sisek likened Farmers Trust Co.’s first 16 years at its former space at City Centre One in downtown Youngstown to the early years of a marriage. “You have an apartment and after a few years it’s time to buy your home and make some permanent arrangements,” he remarked.
Farmers and its parent, Farmers National Banc Corp., celebrated its “housewarming” with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting event Wednesday afternoon at its new home at 42 McClurg Road. The building, which Farmers acquired from Compco Industries, is located across from the St Elizabeth Boardman Health Center and the D.D. and Velma Davis Family YMCA,
The two-story, 15,000-square-foot building will house Farmers Trust Co., which will occupy the entire second floor, as well as Farmers National Financial Center, Farmers National Insurance, Farmers National Investments and Farmers Bank Consumer & Commercial Lending. A total of 41 Farmers employees are in the offices now, said Amber Wallace, senior vice president, marketing.
The trust company had operated as Butler Wick Trust Co. until Farmers acquired it three years ago.
Wednesday’s celebration came as Farmers National Bank marks its 125th anniversary this week, the bank’s CEO, John S. Gulas, told the crowd of employees and guests who gathered in front of the building. “We’re proud to be part of all that’s going on in this valley,” he said. “We have so many good things going on that it’s a good time to be here.” During presentations to investors he said he gets excited about developments such as V&M Star’s expansion project, activity at General Motors Co.’s Lordstown plant and the Utica shale.
The move to its new space was driven by the trust company’s growth, said Sisek, its president and CEO. Since the firm’s start in 1996, it had expanded to occupy the entire eighth floor of City Centre One downtown.
Farmers Trust had grown to $1.3 billion in assets and about 30 employees “and we needed more room,” he said. “So as the community’s growing we wanted to be close to our clients and the attorneys and the retirement homes.”
Sisek recalled showing the space to Paul Ricciuti, principal of Ricciuti Balog & Partners Architects, Youngstown, when the first floor was “nothing but stones and four walls,” and telling him Farmers Trust wanted to be in by the end of the year. “I think Paul said, ‘Oh my gosh.’”
Preparing the second-floor space for Farmers Trust took about three months, said Ricciuti architect Jim Ratliff. “So we were pretty aggressive,” he said. At one point there were so many people working at the site “you couldn’t move without running into a contractor,” he remarked.
The new offices “turned out to be absolutely superb,” Sisek said. “It’s a first-class building.”
The trust company ended up moving into the building slightly later than planned, Jan. 23.
“We moved in one day,” Sisek said.
Taking about 3,750 square feet of the building’s first floor space is Prodigal, a lmarketing and communications firm that relocated from Poland. “You’ll see a definite difference between the look and feel of the bank and the look and feel of Prodigal’s space,” Gulas observed. “Prodigal’s space looks like a West Coast, artsy kind of a theme, painted duct work and all that good stuff, and you’ve got the conservative trust company and the bank on this side.”
The move of the Farmers offices is “just further recognition that the community comes to Boardman for many things,” said township Trustee Tom Costello. “They come for the restaurants, for the shopping, for our churches, for the hospitals, but now they also come for their investments,” he said. “They know that this is the place that they can come and do business and be safe.”
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.