COO: New HQ Serves as Rebirth for First Internet Bank
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The president and chief operating officer of Fishers-based First Internet Bancorp (Nasdaq: INBK) says the bank’s new headquarters in the city’s downtown represents a new beginning. The bank on Thursday dedicated the 168,000-square-foot facility just west of I-69 on 116th Street. “This is really an opportunity for First Internet Bank to be reborn here in this location with new direction, new focus,” said Nicole Lorch. “The sky is the limit when it comes to opportunities for us.”
Lorch, along with CEO David Becker and Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, discussed the new building in an interview with Inside INdiana Business.
First Internet Bank cut the ribbon on the facility in December. The bank currently employs some 250 workers in Fishers, and Lorch says the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
“We’ve always been an organization that has a very strong in-office culture,” she said. “We’ve created spaces where people can work independently, spaces where people to collaborate. So, I think what we have here, especially in this downtown location with all the amenities within walking distance…there’s just so much to do and be a part of here that people want to come to the office.”
The new headquarters was being constructed during a time when companies were working remotely because of the pandemic. And, as offices started to reopen, many businesses moved to a hybrid in-office/remote model.
Becker says there was a concern about whether a new office would work out post-pandemic.
“There was some apprehension in December, but it all evaporated by early March at the latest,” Becker said.
The building is part of a $157 million development announced in 2018. Fadness says the facility sets the tone for the community going forward.
“I think it raises the bar for what our community can achieve and what it can expect both from the quality and the caliber of the companies that call Fishers home to the actual physical setting that we find ourselves in,” he said. “Fifteen years ago, if someone were to say someone’s going to build a six-story building in downtown Fishers, they would tell you you’re crazy. But today, here we sit and it just makes all the sense in the world and it really does start, I think, the wheels in motion for much more to come.”