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A Window for Everyone at New Honor Ops Ctr

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Tucked into a corner off of the interstate highway interchange high on a hill overlooking the grasslands near the St. Joseph Valley Parkway, there are more than 100 workers who now have front row seats on the middle of Berrien County inside a high-tech new facility that is the new home to the Honor Credit Union Operations Center. The glistening new three-story building was officially christened today in ribbon cutting ceremonies by CEO Scott McFarland and his board of directors, six months ahead of schedule and right on budget.

The gleaming new, state-of-the-art 37,000 square foot operations center replaces several sites including one in the back shop of the St. Joseph branch in Southtown and a couple in satellite facilities in downtown Benton Harbor across from Cornerstone Alliance and Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber played host to the celebration at noon today while board members, staff, dignitaries and credit union members took tours of the first-class center. While the building is designed to eventually provide 24/7 call center and IT services if need be, it operates on conventional office hours for the 100 employees assigned duties there while the remaining 150 employees are dispersed to branch operations all across Michigan. 

Scott McFarland is delighted with the "open and collaborative design" of the $10-million project which took about 18-months to complete following ground breaking ceremonies in August of 2014. McFarland is very happy that "Everybody has a window seat," in the new facility, adding, "and the views are simply awesome!" He voiced great pride in the new center and says the staff loves all of the great new amenities, including fully-adjustable desks that can be used either standing up or in a seated position thanks to hydraulic motors that adjust them accordingly.

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Architect Jeff Klymson from Collective Office Architects in Chicago was ecstatic to hear McFarland's characterization of the building, saying that is exactly what he wanted to achieve. In fact, he says, "I designed the building with the tall vertical windows instead of conventional horizontal design seen in most buildings of this nature." He says, "With these windows, everybody feels as if the nearest window is their very own." Klymson is happy that the credit union management and board agreed to make the building a wide open architecture that is decidedly cutting edge to not only help attract new members who share the core values of the institution, but also help attract new employees who would like to work in a hip, modern atmosphere such as has been created there.

Klymson is also very happy that Andrews University is just down the road a bit and home to a world-class school of architecture, "because they might be inclined to wander up here to take a look for themselves at the design we've established here."

The building was erected fully six months ahead of schedule by contractors E.C. Moore, for the credit union team, and has enough room to nearly double the workforce there into the future. The modern infrastructure features fully 10 conference rooms of varying sizes, administrative offices, call center operations, a sizable, fully-electronic training center and a soaring, spacious lobby and front desk. 

The bucolic setting on a hill at the end of Edgewood Road shares lots of trees, prairie grass and wide open spaces both inside and out and Architect Klymson says he "can't wait to come back and see the views in the fall when the colors of the leaves change." 

Honor Credit Union started 82 years ago in 1934 in a private home in Benton Harbor by teachers who wanted to earn more on their savings than they were elsewhere, and have better control over the fate of their investments. The credit union has grown dramatically over the years to more than 60,000 members and assets approaching $665-million at the end of 2015.

The new Honor Credit Union Operations Center is located at 8385 Edgewood Road in Berrien Springs, just off of M-139 near the interchange with U.S. 31 in Oronoko Township.


 

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