How a Nashville-based bank entered the Jax market and expanded (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Views of the St. Johns River will no longer be temporary for the 43 employees a Nashville-based bank has now hired for its Jacksonville expansion.
Pinnacle Financial Partners is a few months away from opening its riverfront office space and bank branch to clients and associates. The bank announced its expansion into Jacksonville in January and now dry wall has begun to partition the space, turning Kasper Architects’ renderings into reality, which should deliver by December.
The bank will occupy portions of the first and sixth floors at 501 Riverside Ave. — a location that met Pinnacle’s desire to invest in downtown with an added bonus of being in a fintech corridor, regional president Scott Keith told the Business Journal.
The 5,090-square-foot first floor space will be a Pinnacle bank branch with an outdoor ATM and learning lab. A local artist has been commissioned to paint a wall that stretches throughout the office.
The approximately 13,000-square-foot sixth floor, which currently houses the bank’s temporary offices, will be developed in two phases. The first phase is about 7,500 square feet and includes a glass conference room, 37 offices, eight workstations and a coffee bar.
Auld & White Constructors is the contractor for the build out and received both permits totaling $2.26 million in June and July. Since then, a slew of electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits have also been issued.
Although Pinnacle is an out-of-town bank, the goal is to staff it with and serve Jacksonville residents. The Pinnacle model, Keith said, is to hire long-time, local bankers. Keith himself has been in the banking industry in Jacksonville for 37 years prior to joining Pinnacle.
So far, it has hired 43 Jacksonville bankers, whose careers average to 26 years of banking experience. With banking veterans, they can bring clients who they’ve worked with for decades, Ketih said.
“Jacksonville is a growing market,” he said. “We want to capture that business coming in and grow because of former relationships. Pinnacle’s job is to put every tool around the client.”
The brand-new office space, flooded with natural light and outlined by geometric shapes, which Kasper Architects’ director of interior design Jason Martucci said reflect the bank’s logo, is intended to maintain Pinnacle’s reputation as a great place to work. The company has a 94% retention rate.
With local partners building the project to local bankers working in the space, Pinnacle Financial hopes to become a staple in the Jacksonville community.
As for future growth, Keith expects to finish the second half of the sixth floor in 2025 and to open two more full-service branch offices, in which Pinnacle is looking for space, in 2026.