Lakewood Lore

Is there faith in the city's future? You can bank on it

Lakewood's banking history passed a milestone (not unlike a kidney stone) this year, and the financial scene here today has a fresh consolidated look as we move along in the final decade of the 20th century.

Newcomer in the neighborhood is Society Bank's elegant branch at 1435 Warren Road. It combined, in a redesigned building that was once Lakewood's main post office, three disbanded local banking operations -- Society's longtime landmark office at Detroit and Victoria, and former AmeriTrust office at Detroit and Cook and at Madison and Warren, both of which were acquired by Society this year.

In case you're wondering what will happen to the three closed sites; well, to begin with, the building that housed Detroit-Victoria operations is doomed. It is now owned by the city of Lakewood and will be torn down soon to make way for Lakewood City Center, the downtown shopping complex currently under construction that is expected to spark commercial renaissance hereabouts.

Meanwhile, the Detroit-Cook and Madison-Warren buildings are up for sale, or possibly lease.

"Both properties are still in good physical condition," reports Don Lydon, agent for Ostendorf-Morris Co., which is handling their disposition.

Sale price of the Detroit-Cook structure, which was built in 1920 and bought by Cleveland Trust in 1946, is $625,000. It is two stories high, of stone and masonry construction and has 6,241 square feet of floor space. Madison-Warren, a single-story edifice built in 1918 and purchased by Cleveland Trust in 1941, is priced at $350,000.

"We have been talking to several interested parties about Detroit-Cook, and negotiating is under way at Madison-Warren," Lydon said. "Inquires have come from restaurants, retail stores and financial institutions."

"Both buildings have substantial 'presence' (very recognizable and visible) and both afford attractive opportunities in what has proved to be a good retail market," he added.

Lydon said the buildings are currently owned by Prefco, a Pitney Bowes retirement fund organization. Ameri-Trust sold them to Prefco several years ago, then leased them back. Society is now seeking buyers for the two Prefco properties through Ostendorf-Morris, he explained.

Society's new consolidated office on Warren was a four-month redesign project (known in the industry as "adaptive re-use"), which turned a post office into a bank. "We primarily used the existing brick structure, carved out a new entry on the south side, did away with the loading dock on the east side, created a drive-through for ATM (automatic teller machine) customers on the north side, and reduced square footage to 6,000 from 8,000," pointed out architect Gerald G. Weber of Lakewood.

The original building was erected as a post office in 1935. It was a Works Project Administration undertaking when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.

It was closed in 1988 and succeeded by the adjacent present expanded post office, which formerly was a Fazio supermarket.

The staff of the new Society office is a blending of many employees who worked at the three closed sites.

"Thus now when customers come to our new location they will most likely see a familiar face to serve them," said branch manager and veteran banker Pieter J. Cornet.

Cornet, who also is a Society vice president, came here from the Netherlands as a young a man in 1956 and started his banking career with Cleveland Trust a year later. He stayed with the bank through its name change to AmeriTrust and this year's acquisition by Society.

Society elected to re-do the post office building instead of remaining at one of its former offices here because it had faith in the future of Lakewood and had complete support from the city, according to Cornet.

"We now have the most modern, efficient banking facility in the area and are very proud to be part of this community," he commented.

A second Society office in Lakewood -- at 11701 Detroit -- continues, as do three other nearby branches -- at 19111 Detroit in Rocky River, and at 17138 and 13681 on Lorain in Cleveland.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post December 3, 1992. Reprinted with permission.

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