F&M Bank plans to open a Hopkinsville branch on the first floor of the Forbes Place building on South Virginia Street within a month. The bank’s signage was recently added to the four-story building that was constructed between 10th and 11th streets in the mid-1970s. It was originally the main office of First City Bank.
“F&M has been part of the Clarksville market for many years, and it is a very natural progression to move into Hopkinsville,” the bank’s executive vice president, John Peck, told Hoptown Chronicle.
Peck said he expects the Hopkinsville branch to be open for business by mid to late November. It will be a full-service banking operation with loan and account services, he said.
Hopkinsville resident Ryan Milauskas, who joined F&M in April as a vice president and commercial lender, will be the lead employee. Initially, the bank will have four to five employees. Peck, the former president of Heritage Bank, will also have an office in the Hopkinsville bank but will continue to work in Clarksville as well.
F&M will become the largest tenant of Forbes Place since investor Earl Calhoun and three partners — Danny Frances, Martin McElroy and Wes Westerfield — bought the building from BB&T (a successor of First City Bank) in 2014 and began renovations. Most of the work has been cosmetic because the building was “exceptionally well built,” said Calhoun, a Hopkinsville accountant and business owner.
“We made a decision going in that we were not going to cut up the building into small suites,” Calhoun said. “We knew we were going to have to be patient for the right tenants to come along.”
Two other tenants occupy parts of the building — the Veterans Administration medical clinic and Lionheart Trauma Support Services, a counseling firm. A community room on the fourth floor has murals depicting Hopkinsville’s history.
The building has the only parking garage in downtown Hopkinsville. It is the most substantial modern building in the historic core of the city.
Calhoun said he considers the building a key element of a successful revitalization of downtown.
Although the building represents a stark contrast to its neighbors, nearly 50 years have passed since its construction — perhaps enough time for the building’s architecture to be seen as iconic.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
