Marston Quina Building at 19 W. Garden St

https://www.pnj.com/story/money/business/2018/02/12/one-palafox-place-marston-quina-building-open-downtown-pensacola-monday/320179002/

The next phase of the One Palafox Place adaptive reuse development in downtown Pensacola will arrive next week with the opening of the three-story Marston Quina Building at 19 W. Garden St.

The building, offering about 7,000 square feet of office space on each level, will serve as the new headquarters for Pensacola agency Fisher Brown Bottrell Insurance. The firm will hold it soft opening Feb. 19 and will occupy the building’s third floor.

The following day, Trustmark, a banking and financial services company headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, and Fisher Brown Bottrell’s parent company, will soft open its first banking location in Pensacola on the building’s ground floor.

With the combining of the institutions into a single building, officials from both believe it will allow for a more consistent approach to providing insurance and financial services in the region.

“It will allow us to be a full-service financial headquarters where associates provide retail banking, commercial banking, mortgage and wealth management services under one roof and allow us to collaborate and serve all the financial needs of our customers,” said Will Hart, Trustmark’s Pensacola president.

On the banking side, Hart said Trustmark intends to provide customers a nontraditional concierge-style setting through various components, which he asserted should boost the efficiency of the location’s services.

First, the bank has installed a pair of interactive myTeller machines. The devices, which connect customers with live tellers operating from remote locations, allow customers to complete routine transactions that a conventional teller would typically process, such as deposits, withdrawals and cashing checks. A machine will be located inside the first floor as well as outside on the building’s south side.

Through customers’ use of the myTeller machines, Hart said the hope is that it frees up personnel for more branch-centric services such as opening an account or loan applications. To assist in directing customers on how to best utilize the location, Hart added a representative will greet visitors and after determining their needs, either direct them to the myTeller for routine transactions or to bank personnel for more complex requests.

“It just promotes more of a customer-service environment,” Hart said. “It gives our employees, rather than having their heads down at a teller line, the ability to focus on the customer and ask if they have additional needs.”

On the insurance side, Robert Hahn, senior financial officer for insurance services at Fisher Brown Bottrell Insurance, said the layout on the third floor will allow for more collaboration between employees and clients. Hahn said the floor has several conference rooms and the offices have been pushed to the center, with all being designed as shared spaces.

“Instead of monopolizing space, people can come in and out of the office, plug in their phone, pull up their computer and leave at the end of the day,” he said. “That spot will then be open for the next person.”

Hahn said 45 employees from Fisher Brown Bottrell Insurance will work on the third floor and seven will work on the ground floor. Hart said Trustmark will staff the bank with seven employees and could add more in the future.

The Marston Quina Building’s construction dates back to 1901. In addition to the building, developer One Palafox Place LLC, managed by Bobby Switzer, is also redeveloping the Blount, Brent and Moulton buildings in downtown as part of the mixed-use One Palafox Place.

On the design and construction side of the Marston Quina Building, an open concept has been installed to accentuate its historic elements. This includes exposed brick, columns and roof joists. Individual offices feature butt-glazed glass walls to allow more natural light to flow into the spaces. The offices also utilize LED lighting for more efficient use of energy and include occupancy sensors so that the lights automatically turn off when the space is not occupied.

Amir Fooladi, president and CEO of the Marston Quina Building’s general contractor ParsCo, said the design offers the unique combination of a historic exterior housing modern, state-of-the-art technology.

“It’s a contrast,” said Fooladi, whose company also served as the general contractor for other projects at One Palafox Place, including Badlands Roadside Bar, Urban Swinery, Bluejay’s Bakery and Wilfrid’s Barber and Fine Goods.

David Alsop, president of the Marston Quina Building’s designer Sam Marshall Architects, added that the use of natural light and transparency adds a feeling of comfort to a financial setting. He explained that customers want to see the operations of a business, and for this reason, butt-glazed walls in a financial institution encourages participation.

“There’s a sense of security related to that,” said Alsop, whose firm also designed the Constant Coffee location in the One Palafox Place breezeway.

Hart said others that contributed to the building’s completion included J. Green Construction Services Inc. in Pensacola and Method-1 Interiors, a commercial interior firm in Birmingham, Alabama. A tenant for the building’s second floor has yet to be finalized, but looking ahead to the opening of the Marston Quina Building next week, Hart expects the location to serve as an asset for his company.

“It’s a new way to bank and provide insurance solutions for our company in the Pensacola market,” he said.

This entry was posted in Commercial. Bookmark the permalink.