Recent rains had turned the future home of a new St. Joseph branch for Honor Credit Union into somewhat of a pond last week, but most of the larger body of water had evaporated in today’s heat just in time to provide board members, administrators, and contracting crews the opportunity to stand on stable, dry ground for a ceremonial groundbreaking. Unfortunately for most of those wielding a shovel today, the sunshine had crusted the clay sufficiently to make it a bit of a task to turn the shovels over.
Despite that small hindrance, several dozen people turned out in the blue sky sunshine to applaud Honor Credit Union CEO Scott McFarland, staff members and others as Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce hosted the formal Groundbreaking Ceremony at the corner of Niles Avenue and Columbia in the Southtown neighborhood of St. Joseph on the site of the now-demolished Sieman’s Mazda automobile dealership after they relocated to Bridgman.
McFarland told those in attendance that Honor is “continuing our commitment to St. Joseph,” and the credit union is eager to get construction underway. St. Joseph Mayor Mike Garey welcomed the Honor team and thanked them for continuing to support the community and for electing to architecturally blend into the neighborhood with their unique design concept, shown in the rendering provided by the team at Honor.
Today’s first shovel of dirt will eventually become the new 6,000 square foot retail branch providing members an even more convenient place to meet their financial needs.
The member experience was kept top of mind as the branch look and feel was being designed with architect Jeff Klymson of Collective Office out of Chicago. With improved accessibility, including expanded drive-thru lanes, members can expect a comfortable and welcoming place to conduct financial business. The build is being led by contractor E.C. Moore of Berrien Springs, and is slated to be complete mid-2017. The existing branch location at 2720 Lakeview Avenue will remain accessible to members until the new branch is complete.
Tanya Urias is Branch Manager for Honor’s St. Joseph facility. She says, “On behalf of the entire St. Joe branch team, we could not be more excited for the move to Niles Avenue and the increased convenience it will bring our members.” She adds, “We are committed to this community and look forward to serving St. Joe from a more accessible and updated space.”
In addition to Collective Office and E.C. Moore, the Structural Engineer for the project is Louis Shell Structures from LaGrange, Illinois…the MEP Engineers are RTM Engineering Consultants from South Barrington, Illinois, Civil Engineering is being provided by Marbach, Brady & Weaver of Elkhart, Indiana, and the IT Consultants for the project are Secant Technologies of Kalamazoo.
Earlier this summer, Honor Credit Union moved administrative headquarters, call center teams and others from the back of house operations to a new 37,000 square foot operations center overlooking the St. Joseph Valley Parkway just off of M-139 on the north side of Berrien Springs.
Honor Credit Union serves more than 60,000 members across the State of Michigan. Providing solutions for financial success and giving back to the communities they serve remain the driving forces behind Honor Credit Union. For more information call 800.442.2800, or visit www.honorcu.com
