The rehabilitation of one of Richmond’s oldest buildings to become Mechanics Bank’s Point Richmond office passed its last hurdle last night as it was approved by the Design Review Board. The following story ran in the West County Times a few days ago highlighting, Martin McNair’s role in the building’s rehabilitation and landing Mechanics Bank as a tenant. Other members of the

non-profit Point Richmond Gateway Foundation, Inc. are: Joshua Genser, Jeff Lee, Margaret Morkowski. Significant contributors include: Robert Lane, Martin McNair, Joshua and Elaina Genser, Margaret Morkowski, Jeff Lee and Janice Cook, Mark and Susan Howe, Kyong Suk “Annie” Janes, Douglas and Rosemary Corbin, Margi Celluci, Kent Kitchingman and Veolia Water (free sewer extension!). Dozens of people also contributed skilled and unskilled labor.

Bank injects life into historic building

·  Mechanics to move into century-old Trainmasters facility, bringing economic hope to Point Richmond

By George Avalos

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Article Launched: 04/20/2007 03:14:22 AM PDT

Martin McNair, who is responsible for saving the century old Trainmasters building in Point...

RICHMOND -- A new Mechanics Bank branch has rescued a century-old railway building in Point Richmond and is expected to spur economic activity in the community.

Mechanics Bank has agreed to occupy a structure known as the Trainmasters Building that once was slated for a wrecking ball. The bank will use the building, sitting in a lot across from the Richmond Plunge, for the relocation of an existing branch elsewhere in Richmond.

Word of the 2,100-square-foot branch of Mechanics Bank heartened those involved in the efforts to salvage the railroad building, which was built in 1903.

"I guess I have an affection for old things," said Martin McNair, a retired real estate developer and investor who has been the driving force the past few years in the quest to save the building. "Old things should be preserved and restored."

The relocation, McNair predicted, will make a big difference in the appearance of the community, located in the southwest corner of Richmond.

"It will make the entrance to Point Richmond look more professional, more polished, more complete," McNair said.

A local business leader also applauded the pending move by Mechanics.

"This new branch is an absolute win for our community," said Jerry Feagley, a local realty broker and director with the Point Richmond Business Association. "It will be great for the area."

The Trainmasters Building originally was constructed as a reading room for railroad workers. McNair said the railway figured

if the workers spent more time reading, they might not carouse as much in bars, pool halls and brothels. Later, it became a classroom, and ultimately it was the primary office for the master of the rail yard, said McNair, who also is a member of the Mechanics board of directors, which had to approve the relocation.

For nearly the past 25 years, the building has been abandoned and boarded up. A group that pushed to save the building moved it about 1.5 miles from a nearby rail yard to its new location near the corner of Richmond Avenue and Garrard Boulevard.

"We had to replace all the windows, the siding and the roof," McNair said.

A breakthrough came a few months ago when Rauly Butler, a senior vice president with Richmond-based Mechanics Bank, was scouting for sites to which to relocate one of the bank's Richmond branches.

"I drove by the Trainmasters Building and thought it was a perfect fit for us," Butler said. "It is old. It has that historic feel. It is the first thing you see when you come into Point Richmond."

By becoming the building's tenant, Mechanics Bank will provide cash flow to improve and maintain the building. Mechanics will first recoup some of its startup costs, and then all the rent will flow to the nonprofit Point Richmond Gateway Foundation and back into the community.

Preparing the building and the surrounding area for the bank will cost about $1.05 million, Butler estimated. That included $600,000 in construction work, $400,000 to refurbish and landscape the property around it, and $50,000 to install an ATM in a kiosk outside the building.

"Because it is historic, we didn't want to cut into the walls to install an ATM," Butler said.

The bank intends to build a large deck in front of the building that will be available to the public and will be used for open-air plays performed by a local theater company, he said.

The new branch site also should benefit the bank, according to Mechanics officials. The bank grew disenchanted with the current branch location at West Cutting Boulevard and Wine Street, which is isolated in a business park whose primary tenant is the state's DNA laboratory. Security is also an issue; that branch has been robbed "several times," Butler said.

"What do we gain by moving? We're the only bank in Point Richmond," Butler said. "A lot of Point Richmond residents don't know we're there. The number one reason a customer chooses a bank is still location."

The bank has 31 retail banking branches, including 19 in the East Bay, said spokeswoman Hatti Hamlin.

Mechanics expects to open the branch Sept. 1 and will have eight employees working there, Butler said.

Bank officials are convinced that the branch will generate heightened economic activity in the area.

"The new branch is going into what was kind of a no-man's land," Feagley said. "Now the bank will create increased commerce right at the gateway to Point Richmond."

George Avalos covers the job market, insurance and banks. Reach him at 925-977-8477 or gavalos@cctimes.com.