Tom Charbono doesn’t mind the idea of moving his candy store if it benefits Franklin’s downtown.
Relocation is a big possibility for the Central Sweets Candy owner now that Franklin Savings Bank has purchased three buildings on Central Street – including the one he rents at 396 Central.
“Anything for downtown, for the community,” he said Thursday.
Franklin Savings Bank purchased the three buildings – 396, 406 and 436 Central St., – in July for $1.4 million in hopes of finding a larger office space for its sub-company, Independent Financial Advisors, Franklin Savings Bank President Ron Magoon said.
The bank wasn’t looking to purchase all three of the buildings, but they came as a package deal, Magoon said. He said the bank plans to use only one of the buildings for Independent Financial Advisors. The rest they plan to renovate and resell, which means the current tenants – a series of apartment buildings and the six businesses – will have to move out.
“We’re trying to be as sensitive as we can to the tenants currently in place,” he said.
Magoon said the bank is hoping to be able to move some of the businesses, like Charbono’s, which occupies the space to be held by Independent Financial Advisors, to another one of their recently purchased buildings.
“As long as I don’t have to spend tons of money, it’s fine,” said Charbono, who said he’s spoken with the bank about moving his store down the street to the building they purchased at 436 Central St.
But not all of the current tenants will likely be able to stay. Pat Palm, who runs a pawn shop at 436 Central St., said she was concerned about her business’s future.
“They can look at you and tell you anything they want. But they have a business agenda, and they may need people in these spaces now because they need the rent, but after that, then what?” she asked.
Palm said her shop is a popular community hub in the city because it’s affordable and they’re open seven days a week. She said the building, which has had problems with water pipe leaks, is going to be a big undertaking to renovate.
“It’s going to be a good thing if it’s done the right way. My big concern is, what cost is it going to be to the store owners to get what they want done,” she said. “It should be affordable, because you don’t want to be so expensive that the people who actually live here can’t afford it.”
Magoon said the company is considering putting the Independent Financial Advisors office in the first floor of either 396 – which currently houses Charbono’s business, a law firm, a church and apartments – or 406, which houses a store that sells hedgehogs, a hair salon, a pawn shop and more apartments.
That leaves 436 open. He said the company would likely work with the Franklin non-profit PermaCityLife to renovate the two buildings.
“Hopefully in the end, these buildings end up being a real positive contribution of the revitalization,” Magoon said.
Charbono, who moved to Franklin in the 1990s, said Franklin’s downtown could use a facelift. Many of the old brick buildings date to the 1900s, and they need repairs. The third floor of the building he works in, for example, is a unique space with a stage, but it’s not safe for people to use.
“When I got here in 1990, downtown was pretty cool. It slowly just went downhill,” he said. “I think it’s awesome that they’re going to renovate the buildings and make them look the way they did when they were made – that old-time-y feel.”
The city hopes the buildings purchased by Franklin Savings Bank will add to the revitalization projects already underway in the city, like Mill City Park’s white water park project.
Outside Palm’s shop Thursday, David Bates Jr. was smoking a cigarette and admiring the facade of the downtown buildings. Bates said he moved away from Franklin for awhile, and likes the improvements he’s seen since he’s been back.
“It’s a nicer aura – I don’t know how else to explain it,” he said. “Change is good.”
(Leah Willingham can be reached at 369-3322, lwillingham@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @LeahMWillingham.)