Southern Bank breaks ground on newest branch
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 6, 2015 1:50 AM
Groundbreaking ceremonies for Southern Bank and Trust Co.'s new $2 million Goldsboro branch office were held Friday morning.
Construction on the new office at the corner of East Ash Street and Spence Avenue is expected to get under way Tuesday and will take about 12 months to complete.
It will be the second Southern Bank office location in Goldsboro. The existing branch, located at 2301 Wayne Memorial Drive, will remain open.
Bank officials announced the project on March 4 before a packed room of bank and local officials during a business breakfast meeting at Wilber's Barbecue.
And many of those who attended that meeting were on hand for Friday's ceremony.
Mayor Pro-tem Chuck Allen said the large turnout was indicative of what the bank means to the county.
The new bank is the culmination of a vision that Southern Bank has had for many, many years, said Grey Morgan, bank board chairman.
The bank, he said, had always wanted to be a part of the Goldsboro community.
What is happening goes deeper than just breaking ground, Morgan said.
More importantly it is a statement of faith, he said. It also is a statement of belief of a promising future in one of the larger and leading cities in eastern North Carolina, Morgan said.
"I would like to thank everyone for coming out this morning and showing your support as we celebrate the first day of construction of what will soon be one of our largest branches," Morgan said. "But this groundbreaking is more than a symbolic beginning date of construction. More importantly, it is a statement of confidence and belief of a promising future in one of the leading business centers in eastern North Carolina."
In the months and years ahead Southern Bank will work hard to give the best service possible to its customers in the Goldsboro market, Morgan said.
"We fully understand that our success in this community will be directly tied to the level of service we consistently provide," he said. "Southern Bank has been headquartered in Wayne County for over a hundred years. I trust that we have already demonstrated our deep commitment of supporting the communities we serve.
"I can't thank you enough for the support we have received from the town and community toward bringing this vision to reality."
It seems like it was just a couple of week ago that Southern Bank and Trust made the announcement it would be breaking ground on another branch in Goldsboro, Wayne County Chamber President Kate Daniels said.
"We are so excited to be a part of today's celebration as they officially break ground," she said. "This is a wonderful start to a beautiful ending that we are going to see before long."
Greg Shackelford, bank senior vice president, south region, said there were a lot of familiar faces in the crowd who work for Southern Bank.
Many are local residents and have many years of service with the bank, so they know a lot of people and the community they serve, he said.
As for future projects, Morgan said the bank is always looking for good opportunities.
The new branch office, at 7,400 square feet, will be among the larger ones in the bank's network.
It is being built by Daniels and Daniels Construction Co.
The new branch will be a full-service banking facility with a two-lane drive-through on the back side of the building and ATM service, night deposit drop box service and local lending offices.
In addition to the vault and teller area, it will have four downstairs offices along with five or six offices and a boardroom upstairs.
Southern Bank serves customers from Sampson County in the southwest to Tidewater Virginia and to the Outer Banks.
When the bank was founded in 1901 as the Bank of Mount Olive, it had $10,000 in assets and 17 investors.
Today it has assets approaching $2.3 billion with 67 office serving North Carolina and Virginia and more than 600 employees, 100 of which are in Wayne County.