Skyline National Bank has sold its downtown Floyd building to Floyd County, which plans to move county administrative offices there while temporarily leasing some space back to the bank.
The $1.725 million purchase, which closed Aug. 7, includes the main bank building at 101 Jacksonville Circle and drive-thru lanes, as well as some parking and green space.
“This purchase allows the county to address space and security issues in both the courthouse and with social services at a much lower cost than building a new courthouse building,” Joe Turman, chair of the Floyd County Board of Supervisors, said Thursday in a news release.
The county offices will occupy the top floor of the building, which is next to the county courthouse. The bank will lease the lower two floors until the construction of its new Main Street facility is complete, according to the news release.
The county plans to eventually offer drive-thru and teller window services for some government functions.
With the county administrative offices moving out of their current 120 W. Oxford St. home, Floyd County Social Services now can expand to occupy all of that building.
The county said that money generated by renting the property back to Skyline will cover much of the financing cost during the lease period.
“Banking has changed a lot in recent years and our existing building had more space than we needed and it wasn’t as operationally efficient as many of our newer facilities,” Skyline National Bank President and CEO Blake Edwards said in the release.
“We have the opportunity now to build a more modern facility that will ultimately save us money and at the same time we can help the county by making our existing building available to them so they can solve their growth challenges at a much lesser cost to the county taxpayers.”
Independence-based Skyline National Bank, a subsidiary of Skyline Bankshares Inc. (OTCQX:SLBK), has 27 branches and one loan production office serving eight Virginia counties and 11 North Carolina counties and their surrounding areas. As of the end of June it held about $1 billion in assets.