TD Bank is moving to a new King Street location in Old Town by 2025.
On Saturday, City Council unanimously approved a special use permit allowing the bank to operate with 37 feet of street frontage at 515 King Street. The decision was previously backed 5-2 by the Planning Commission, which went against a staff recommendation to deny the project.
As previously reported, City staff wrote there are three other banks located within a single block of 515 King Street. They also said that the addition of a bank doesn’t activate the street frontage.
“The addition of another inactive use – a bank – with excessive frontage would negatively impact area vitality and an interactive pedestrian experience,” staff reported. “The proposed use incorporating an expansive frontage would contribute to an experiential and visual interruption of a positive pedestrian experience along King Street.”
City Council approved a condition on the advice of Old Town resident Barbara Beach, who asked that the bank create an community nonprofit display that would be lit daily until 11 p.m.
“It would be lit in the evening,” Beach said, “and gives people walking along King Street something to look at, something to be educated by. It also would give nonprofits that don’t have a lot of money for marketing.”
Mayor Justin Wilson admitted that it’s “odd” to have so many banks clustered along King Street, but that he was happy to have a business fill the site.
“I know there’s been a fair amount of discussion community about yet another bank, and speaking as someone who has not stepped in a bank for my own personal use, really ever, I do agree it is odd,” Wilson said. “I think this is fine. I obviously want to see a use come into this site versus no use at all.”
The 2,285-square-foot building is the former longtime home to SunTrust (now Truist) Bank in Old Town. The bank will be located in the same building as Tatte Bakery and Cafe.
TD Bank’s lease at its location around the corner at 119 S. Washington Street is expiring next year. The bank has been at that location since 2009.
