Country Bank Strengthens Its Presence in Springfield
Down on Main Street
Mary McGovern says the location at 1350 Main St. gives Country Bank great visibility in downtown Springfield.
Mary McGovern says Country Bank has been looking to create a stronger presence in downtown Springfield for at least five years now.
The institution, which has a lending office on the 17th floor of Tower Square, has considered several sites for a banking center with strong visibility, she said, including the space in Monarch Place that would eventually become home to the corporate offices of New Valley Bank.
“We were looking strongly at that site, but we were beaten out for it,” she said, adding that other players were as well.
Undeterred, the Ware-based bank kept looking in Springfield while shifting its immediate focus to Worcester and establishing a stronger presence there (Country now has three locations in that city), said McGovern, the bank’s president. But the search in Springfield entered a new phase late last year with a call from Evan Plotkin, co-owner of the 1350 Main St. tower.
That call concerned the long-vacant space last occupied by Santander Bank, and … fast-forwarding a little, this large space will soon be sporting a Country Bank sign.
The bank’s move into that large, ground-floor location, likely to happen in the third quarter of this year after a comprehensive build-out, will give Country a much more visible presence downtown and, by that time, its second banking center in the western part of Hampden County. Indeed, the bank is finalizing a lease on a space in Longmeadow close to the Enfield line, said McGovern, adding that expansion in this region has emerged as one of the bank’s key strategic initiatives.
“We’ve been focused on branching out both in the Worcester area and in Springfield. Overall, 2024 was more eastern-focused, and in 2025, we’ll be focusing more on our western market.”
“We’ve been focused on branching out both in the Worcester area and in Springfield,” she said. “Overall, 2024 was more eastern-focused, and in 2025, we’ll be focusing more on our western market.”
As for the location in 1350 Main St., it continues a strong comeback for that property, which has seen many of its long-vacant spaces absorbed in the past 24 months, while it also continues a movement by the banking sector into the central business district; in addition to New Valley, Chase recently established a branch on the ground floor of 1391 Main, known to most as Harrison Place.
Plotkin, president of NAI Plotkin as well as co-owner of 1350 Main, said the space being taken by Country has been vacant for about a dozen years now. Over that span (most of which the first five floors were owned by a separate party; Plotkin and partners gained control in 2023), there has been interest of varying degrees from a broad range of businesses.
White Lion Brewing Co. took a long look at the space before eventually settling on a site in Tower Square, he noted, adding that a few restaurants and retailers have looked at it as well.
Banks … not so much, said Plotkin, adding that Country apparently sees what others haven’t, and that is an emerging corner, if you will, in downtown Springfield, with the MassMutual Center diagonally across Main Street, a new parking garage behind that, a revitalized Court Square across Court Street, and the new apartments at 31 Elm St. just beyond the park.
Mary McGovern and Evan Plotkin say 1350 Main St. is an emerging corner in downtown Springfield.
“That’s one of the best corners in the city,” he told BusinessWest. “It’s next to City Hall, it’s across from the MassMutual Center … it’s where the life and the heart of the city is. The center of gravity has moved to this block.”
Plotkin categorized Country’s arrival as a win-win. It’s a win for the bank, which gains a highly visible location in the city, and it’s a win for all those at 1350 Main, because a long-dark space will see the lights go back on again.
“To have a dark space on the ground floor of a building of this stature is an impediment, if not from an economic basis, but from a visibility standpoint,” Plotkin said. “To have the lights on in there, with the activity of a bank, transacting business, changes the building quite a bit.”
Like most other downtown bank branches, the location lacks parking and a drive-thru lane, but it will be convenient for people working or doing other business in that area, and will provide additional support for the bank’s many customers in the Greater Springfield and Northern Connecticut markets, said McGovern, adding that, while most banking customers visit a branch infrequently, some, including small-business owners and mortgage customers, prefer that level of service.
“To have the lights on in there, with the activity of a bank, transacting business, changes the building quite a bit.”
As noted, the space at 1350 Main is large, around 4,000 square feet, much larger than most branches being built or moved into today. She noted that one portion of the space will be devoted to the banking center, with the rest put to other uses, such as hoteling other bank employees doing business in Springfield or attending events there.
Meanwhile, the location will give Country much greater visibility in the 413’s largest city, an important consideration in ongoing efforts to grow the institution and build its brand.
“Some people know we’re in Tower Square, but sometimes it feels that not many people know because there isn’t a sign at street level,” McGovern said. “There’s nothing like a sign on a banking center to let people know you’re there.”
—George O’Brien
