by La Macchia Group
Financial leaders often dream of having a corporate office that embodies both form and function. However, financial office design is unique and oftentimes more complex, and if your architect can't plan for future growth or your general contractor doesn't provide full transparency, the process quickly becomes cumbersome.
Eglin Federal Credit Union made the ultimate commitment to position its organization as a forward-thinking and desirable place to work by selecting La Macchia Group as the right partner to guide them through that journey.
THE BIG PICTURE
La Macchia Group began working with Eglin Federal Credit Union in 2019, providing design/build services to renovate the exterior of its existing six-story headquarters. However, the continued growth of the credit union, along with the ever-changing needs of members prompted its leadership to plan for something bigger, and better.
With a branch network concentrated in Florida's panhandle, Eglin Federal Credit Union recognized it was time to create a place that takes care of its employees just as well as it takes care of its members. A balance like this is no easy assignment, but having La Macchia Group’s expertise in financial facility planning gave Eglin a comprehensive understanding and the resources to create an operations hub custom to its needs.
Design Theme: Flexibility
To address this issue, La Macchia Group designed a long-term solution. During the fall of 2021, shovels hit dirt on Eglin Federal Credit Union’s future workplace, a truly state-of-the-art operations center that Fort Walton Beach residents will soon take pride in. To make this a great place to work, several unique features include everything from the best design/build solutions to achieving the standard of what innovative and highly adaptable office environments look like in the financial services space.
Adaptability: A New Mindset
Designing for the future is top of mind for every architect and interior designer at La Macchia Group. As Eglin Federal Credit Union continues to prosper and grow in its community, that inevitably comes with a need for attracting top talent and maintaining a responsive and adaptable workplace.
The design team created the operations center with the intent to allow for future workforce development needs and changes. Employee growth can oftentimes cause businesses to shift or modify workstations and at times relocate entire departments which can be an expensive undertaking. However, the industry specific know-how of La Macchia Group’s design/build experts will allow the credit union to handle its growth with a seamless, structured, and cost-effective approach.
Built For Resiliency
As Floridians know, July to October is hurricane season in Florida which presents unique challenges to every family and business in the state. La Macchia Group's team made this well-known fact a high priority from all perspectives when planning for the facility’s future. The in-house real estate and site selection team identified a site located out of the category 5 hurricane storm surge, an area with potential to produce a 20 to 25 feet high tidal flood that will destroy everything in its immediate path.
As an additional safeguard, the operations center will be built to satisfy the Miami-Dade hurricane code. Meeting this standard ensures the building’s viability and capital investments are protected, allowing the credit union to remain operational during or immediately after such events. There’s no doubt that having resilient structures is a must in hurricane alley, and making sure a building’s entire envelope (including its windows, doors, and roof) is critical to that.
BUILDING AN ENTERPRISE
From a retail standpoint, the Eglin brand is well-known and easily accessible to its members with the nine branch locations it operates today. That said, credit union leadership and La Macchia Group believed it was best for the new operations center to have no retail space and only be dedicated to sustaining the organization’s current and future workforce and evolving business needs. This, without a doubt, is a highly strategic move and demonstrates the credit union’s ability to effectively deploy capital and emboldened La Macchia Group to create a space that will be around for 30+ years.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE BUILDER
A project of this size is no easy task, but La Macchia Group’s skilled team of architects, designers, and construction professionals under a single roof is a recipe for success. Our approach to a construction project of this magnitude is designed to give Eglin Federal Credit Union full visibility and control of its project without all the stress. In addition to that, being a hyper-specialized design/builder in the financial services industry allows for considerable advantages when understanding and respecting how financials operate along with their unique growth patterns. This priceless attribute over the traditional design-bid-build process in which the architect and general contractor are not one team dedicated to one sector provides better value, faster completion, and greater transparency.
The future is looking very bright for Eglin Federal Credit Union.
