Well, not the bank business itself, but the beauty of this historical icon for Shawnee.
The current ownership of the building which rests with Dan Pflumm, a descendant of the original bank's owners, has plans to remove the ugly glass and steel overlays that cover up the beautiful stone work of the original building. This will be a welcome beautification project for the southwest corner of Johnson Drive and Nieman Road. Now that block of Johnson Drive will look like it once was and can become a major attraction to downtown Shawnee. Not old, not ancient, but classy
Plans call for a high end restaurant to become a major tenant of the building. Great idea.
Some folks have questioned the use of $300,000 of SEED money for the project. The total cost will be $1 million. Apparently these folks are not aware of what the SEED money is for or where it comes from. Years ago the city entered into an agreement with Deffenbaugh now WMA for that company to pay an impact fee of over $3 million dollars annually with periodic increases. The council at the time designated 1/2 of that money for road repairs and 1/2 for economic development. The funds going into this project do not come from the general fund, ergo not from city taxpayers. A portion of the funding for the Aztec Theater downtown came from the same source.
Anyway, this is one project that I'd like to commend both the building's ownership and the city for making it happen.
Sidebar: IMHO this project along with the Blume Shawnee development a few blocks south on Nieman can only add to the positive appearance of the redevelopment of that corridor. Unlike IMHO the project that I have nicknamed the Starship Nieman. I don't consider that building to be attractive. But, I guess there are those who do. Oh well.
