
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 21, 1993                   TAG: 9308210057
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIRST UNION SIGN-CHANGE BIDDER OK'D

A South Carolina company was named Friday as successful bidder for changing Dominion Bank signs in this region to mark its new owner, First Union National Bank.

Carter-Miot Engineering Co. Inc. of Columbia will convert the signs at several hundred branches in Southwest Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.

The bank plans to spend $7.4 million, or $15,000 a branch, to convert its signs throughout the Dominion system. The cost for the Roanoke Valley is estimated at $330,000.

Area branches will switch to the First Union name the morning of Oct. 12, after the three-day Columbus Day weekend. Columbus Day is a federal bank holiday.

David Scanzoni, spokesman for First Union, said virtually all of the new signs actually will be in place before that, but will remain covered until Oct. 12.

Then, the covers will be used to hide the Dominion signs until they can be removed, Scanzoni said.

Signs on the Dominion Tower and Dominion Bank Building in downtown Roanoke will not be changed until the end of the year. The bank leases space in both properties.

All of the old Dominion signs will be recycled.

Successful bidder for new signs in the bank's Capital region around Washington and for Tennessee was Cummings Signs Inc. of Nashville, Tenn.

The 63 Dominion branches in Tennessee will be converted to First Union operations during the first weekend in October.

In the Capital region, which includes the Virginia and Maryland suburbs, the conversion will take place Dec. 11 and 12.

The signs in the Richmond and Tidewater areas will change that same weekend.

First Union Corp. acquired Dominion Bankshares Corp. last March. The Dominion name is being used until its computers are aligned with the First Union system.

by CNB