Tompkins Financial settles into new downtown Ithaca headquarters

ITHACA, N.Y. — Tompkins Trust Company, part of Tompkins Financial Corp. (NYSE: TMP), opened its new branch office at its new corporate headquarters in downtown Ithaca on Monday morning, May 14.

It came a week after the banking company opened the 110,000-square-foot, seven-story headquarters building at 118 E. Seneca Street on May 7. The structure consolidates more than 300 employees who previously worked from seven buildings in the Ithaca area. Employees of all three company affiliates (Tompkins Trust, Tompkins Insurance Agencies, and Tompkins Financial Advisors) now work under one roof.

The Tompkins Trust retail branch and ATM are located on the first floor and the affiliated businesses are on the floors above. That includes the operations, IT, finance, and HR departments.

The planning process for the new headquarters began three years ago. The total investment for the building was just shy of $40 million, Stephen S. Romaine, Tompkins Financial’s president and CEO, tells BJNN. That included the cost of refurnishing the entire building and moving the company’s data center there.

“This investment is doing two things: accommodating our growth over the last 20 years and hopefully establishing a good home for our company for the next 200 years,” he says.

The building’s features include all-LED lighting, a high-efficiency HVAC, and View Dynamic Glass that will automatically tint — reducing solar radiation and glare and demand on the HVAC system, the CEO explains.

Romaine says the new headquarters will boost employees’ “spirit level” by having everyone in one building and provide a more convenient place for clients to do business. Operating seven facilities previously involved “a lot of inefficiency,” he adds.

Romaine says it’s an exciting time for Tompkins Financial. “I’m incredibly impressed with the job they did preparing this building.”

Growth

Tompkins Financial recently reported that its net income jumped 30 percent in the first quarter to a record $20.4 million from the $15.7 million it reported in the same period in 2017.

The banking company said its earnings per share rose 29 percent to a record $1.33 in the first quarter from $1.03 in the year-earlier period.

Improving margins, higher fee-income growth, and a lower tax rate due to federal tax reform contributed to the profit rise.

Romaine says Tompkins Financial’s growth has been driven by core business development and bringing in new banking, wealth management, and insurance clients. The banking company’s last significant acquisition was six years ago, so all of its recent growth is “entirely organic,” he notes.

Tompkins Financial is a financial-services company serving the Central, Western, and Hudson Valley regions of New York and the Southeastern region of Pennsylvania. Tompkins Financial is parent of Tompkins Trust Company, Tompkins Bank of Castile, Tompkins Mahopac Bank, Tompkins VIST Bank, Tompkins Insurance Agencies, Inc., and offers wealth-management services through Tompkins Financial Advisors.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com

Photo credit: Tompkins Financial