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Florence Bank President and CEO Kevin R. Day poses with Chicopee Mayor John L. Vieau at the bank’s new Chicopee branch site on Memorial Drive. Photo courtesy of Florence Bank
Florence Bank broke ground last week on its third Hampden County branch at 705 Memorial Drive in Chicopee. Bank leaders said the full-service location will open later this year.
“Prior to the pandemic, we had identified and procured the former Hu Ke Lau restaurant site as our third location in Hampden County,” Florence Bank President Kevin R. Day said in a statement. “While it feels strange to be moving forward during this economic standstill, we are excited that our customers in Chicopee will soon have new and more convenient options for banking with us.”
The $1.4 billion-asset Florence Bank said it has hundreds of customers living in Chicopee and nearly 5,000 customers living in Hampden County. Day called the city “industrious” and ” the clear choice for our next branch location.”
“It’s exciting to have some new development here on the former Hu Ke Lau site and we’re thankful to have Florence Bank who is going to be a great partner for the city. We’re looking forward to working with them and in this time of uncertainty, it’s nice to see that there’s progress and things are still moving forward,” Chicopee Mayor John L. Vieau said in a statement.
The building is being built by Marois Construction Co. of South Hadley, was designed by HAI Architecture of Northampton and was engineered by R. Levesque Assoc., an engineering firm in Westfield.
Florence Bank began expanding into Hampden County in 2017, opening its first branch at 1010 Union St. in West Springfield that August. In December 2018, the bank opened a second Hampden County location on Allen Street in Springfield.
Similar in style to the West Springfield Banking Center and the Allen Street branch, the Chicopee location will have an open floor plan with a full-service teller pod and innovative technology for quick cash handling. The location will also feature a drive-up ATM with SMART technology for easy depositing.
“Branching is changing. Customers can do so much more away from the branch. But they still need to know who they’re banking with, and people want to be able to see us and know they can reach us when they have questions,” Day said.
