Worcester Telegram & Gazette
(MA)
BANK
UNVEILS ITS NEW LOOK June
17, 1997
Section: BUSINESS
Page: E1
By Chris Pope; Telegram &
Gazette Staff
WORCESTER - First Massachusetts Bank took the
wraps off its investment in the city's future
yesterday in a noon unveiling of its new downtown
branch and corporate offices at 339 Main St.
"Welcome to the world headquarters of First
Massachusetts Bank," bank President Richard B.
Collins said before dropping one of the tarps that
covered the building while work proceeded on the
$1.2 million project. "This is an exciting day for
our bank and our city."
VANDALISM Although it went off without a
hitch, the unveiling looked as if it might have
had to be delayed. According to fire officials,
around 9 p.m. Sunday, vandals torched the tarp
shrouding the building, leaving its facade
partially coated with a residue of soot and melted
plastic.
Lawyer J. Robert Seder, who owns the
110-year-old red brick building, said one set of
workers was dispatched to Boston to fetch a new
tarp, while other crews scrambled to repair what
proved to be only superficial damage in time for
the ceremony to take place on schedule.
Known as the Burnside Building, the
structure was bought by Seder's family in 1939.
Seder, a partner in the law firm of Seder &
Chandler, which occupies the third and fourth
floors, sold it to the former Worcester County
Institution for Savings in 1986. Seder repurchased
the building from BankBoston last year for
$610,000. First Massachusetts Bank will occupy the
first and second floors under a long-term lease
with Seder.
Several other tenants will occupy the fifth
floor.
`A GOOD DAY'
"This was a fun project. It was a lot of
work, and there were a lot of good people working
on it. This is a good day for all of us," Seder
said.
In their remarks, state and city officials
said they hoped that the restoration project,
which received tax increment financing from the
city, will spur similar restoration efforts up and
down Main Street.
"They say all good things grow from a
nucleus. Let's hope this becomes contagious," City
Manager Thomas R. Hoover told the 200 or so people
who stood on a roped-off section of Main Street in
front of the refurbished building. Ramon H.
Hovsepian Associates Inc. of Worcester was the
project architect. Monaco
Restorations Inc. of Sturbridge did the
restoration work.
"This is a good example that I hope is
followed up with more participants in the city's
rebirth," said State Sen. Robert A. Bernstein,
D-Worcester.
COMING TOGETHER
First Massachusetts Bank will occupy about
15,000 square feet of the building's 35,000 square
feet, said Collins. Spokesman David P. Reville
said the bank will employ about 33 in its
corporate offices and seven in the branch office.
The building renovation allows the bank to bring
together administrative functions previously at
120 Front St. and at the 295 Park Ave. branch, he
said.
First Massachusetts is part of $2.6 billion
Burlington, Vt.-based BankNorth Group Inc., which
created First Massachusetts last year from Fleet
and Shawmut branches in Central and Western
Massachusetts that were divested as a result of
the Fleet-Shawmut merger.
Establishing the new bank's corporate
headquarters in downtown Worcester "is a sign of
the bank's belief that the city's downtown
development effort will pay off," said Collins.
"Society needs central cities that
function," said Collins. "This is our way of
helping this city function for the people who live
here. We can't turn around downtown by ourselves,
but in doing this we're hoping to let people know
that in our view downtown is the place to
be."
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