The news that First Union will sell its main office on West Innes Street as part of its merger with Wachovia isn’t the first time the bank has sent a buzz through historic Salisbury.
For instance, many may recall the 1988 squabble with the Historic District Commission over the installation of a satellite dish atop its drive-through facility. Before that there was a bit of controversy over how many parking spaces it could carve out of the Bell Tower lawn and, still earlier, the negotiations over the property where it built its “new” office in 1974 — for the then princely sum of $875,000.
Or you could go back even farther, to 1963, when First Union first came to town by acquiring the venerable Scottish Bank and setting up shop on South Main.
But none of those may have packed the jolt of the announcement that the main branch would be among 38 offices First Union and Wachovia would divest in order to satisfy federal regulators. First Union customers knew that both banks would probably have to sell some properties if the merger went through. They also knew they would lose a familiar name. But few suspected they also would have to surrender a downtown landmark in the process.
What will divestiture of the office mean for the customers who have accounts or loans there? What will it mean for tellers, officers, account managers and other employees? What factors went into the decision to close this office while sparing the Wachovia facility just around the corner?
And what, ultimately, will it mean for the city itself?
Those same questions are being asked in other affected cities around the state and, for now, there aren’t many answers. Bank officers and their legal teams are trying to shepherd the merger to final approval from shareholders and regulators, even as rival Wachovia bidder SunTrust presses its campaign against the deal. For now, First Union assures employees and customers that the transition will be as painless as possible. For bank workers, that means the hope of continuing in the service of whatever buyer eventually comes forward. For customers, it means the hope of conducting business with familiar faces, in a comfortable format, albeit under a different corporate identity.
For many in the community, whether First Union customers or simply longtime residents accustomed to its presence as a cornerstone of the city, the divestiture announcement changes the complexion of the proposed merger. Instead of an abstract financial exercise being conducted in distant boardrooms and regulatory offices, it now has an unsettling immediacy. It has moved from the headlines to a hometown street.
It’s one thing to contemplate the changing of a company nameplate — but quite another to realize it will also alter the landscape of a community.
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