BB&T donates three downtown office buildings
Buildings will house borough offices and police
With change comes opportunity. During a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, BB&T announced the donation of three buildings to the borough of Boyertown.
Two of the buildings at 23 S. Reading Ave. will be utilized by the borough as office space. The third building at 16 W. Philadelphia Ave. will be the new home of the Boyertown Police Department.
Those in attendance included BB&T representatives, Boyertown Mayor Marianne V. Deery, Boyertown Council President Frank Deery, Boyertown Police Chief Barry Leatherman, representatives from the offices of U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello (R-6th Dist.) and state Sen. Bob Mensch (R24th Dist.), state Rep. David Maloney (R-130th Dist.),
BB&T representatives and other local officials. BB&T Group Executive Scott V. Fainor recognized many of these individuals for helping to bring this plan to reality.
“Over my banking career, Boyertown has become very close to my heart,” said Fainor, explaining how he has been a banker for 37 years, and was previously CEO of National Penn.
BB&T gained possession of the properties following its attainment of National Penn back in April.
Fainor said several meetings took place to make this donation happen. “We wanted to commit to this community that we were going to continue, as BB&T, to be a great corporate citizen just as we were at National Penn, even though things change.”
The buildings have a combined market value of about $750,000 and are move-in ready. Some office furniture is included with the donation, in addition to the adjoining parking lot.
“This is a community celebration and it’s also about continuing to move forward,” said Fainor. “We’re making this happen. You can’t do it without people — good people focused on good community leadership.”
Mayor Marianne Deery emphasized the fact that this was a community effort.
“We have a great community, great teamwork. Your donation is just beautiful. It’s going to be wonderful for the borough,” said Deery, during the ribboncutting event held inside one of the borough’s future office buildings. “You can see how much room we’ll have. We’ll be much more efficient and we’ll be able to help the people better.”
Boyertown Police Chief Barry Leatherman thanked the mayor and borough council for their support and for making it a priority to find space. “That’s something I’ve been sharing a long time — that we have needs that have not really been met where we’ve been forever. It took that leadership on their part, and that support, to go out and find something.”
Leatherman pointed out big difference from BB&T’s previous donation of the Hafer building and said this donation is the opportunity to keep the borough offices and the police department grouped together.
“We can keep what we had, the best of what we had, and still move up to something bigger,” said Leatherman.
Borough Council President Frank Deery thanked Fainor and presented him with $3 from the council as payment for the buildings in order to “make this official.”
He said the future of the borough’s office onWashing- ton Street still needs to be discussed by borough council, adding that the buildings will need to undergo some renovations. Deery said he would be surprised if they were moved into before the end of next year.
In addition to the building donation, BB&T presented a $120,000 grant to Building a Better Boyertown through the BB&T Economic Growth Fund of Berks County Community Foundation. These funds will help to support the borough’s growth and progress.