Sam Stockard, Murfreesboro Post, November 24, 2015
Franklin Synergy Bank is negotiating the sale of its East College Street property as it plans to move into a new Rutherford County corporate headquarters slated for Medical Center Parkway.
Lee Moss, bank president, stands where he once attended church before services moved. Despite significant financial investment, the building has fallen into disrepair. (CAT MURPHY/The Murfreesboro Post).
The bank is discussing a potential sale to buyer groups for redevelopment of the block on North Church and East College streets, and a deal could be reached as soon as 60 days, according to Lee Moss, president of Franklin Synergy.
Even though it plans to sell the property, the bank wants to maintain an office at the site where it’s been located since it opened as MidSouth Bank more than 12 years ago before merging with Franklin Synergy in 2014, Moss said.
“We’re deeply interested in how someone develops it,” Moss said, including future use of the former First Methodist Church sanctuary, which dates back to 1888 and holds sentimental as well as historical value.
Moss hopes the developer will be able to reach an agreement with a local nonprofit agency for use of the former sanctuary.
“It is a strong desire of ours that that remain,” Moss said, but he noted its future will depend on the developer.
The bank uses the area of the former church where Sunday school classes and the Family Life Center were housed, but the old sanctuary has been vacant for 13 years and is somewhat deteriorated, according to Moss.
The building doesn’t qualify for historic preservation because First Methodist made two additions, including a choir loft, said Moss, who remains a member of First Methodist since its move to North Thompson Lane.
Meanwhile, a group of Synergy Bank’s board members formed a partnership, Columbia Avenue Partners, to construct a bank headquarters building on Medical Center Parkway.
Murfreesboro Planning Commission approved a site plan in September for a 24,722-square-foot Synergy Bank office building at Medical Center Parkway and Gateway Drive. The plan is under review by Murfreesboro Building & Codes Department.
A two-story building is to be built with work possibly starting in the fourth quarter of this year and construction taking an estimated nine to 12 months, Moss said.
“We will be the primary tenant but not the sole tenant,” Moss said.
City Councilman Bill Shacklett, who serves on the Main Street Murfreesboro/Rutherford County Board, said he believes making the old sanctuary building accessible to the public and meeting disability guidelines will be most difficult because the entrance is several feet above ground level.
“Serious dollars have got to go into it and retrofit it,” Shacklett said.
An individual or group with a vision and funds will be necessary to renovate the building, he pointed out.
“That would be a terrible thing to lose for our downtown because of all the history in it,” Shacklett said.
Murfreesboro needs a museum to tell the city’s story and to preserve and house historical items, he said, but noted that would require the creation of another nonprofit entity.
Writer Sam Stockard can be reached at [email protected]