After losing the historic Farmers and Mechanics building to an upcoming hotel development, the Synchrony Group, headed by Rod Hughes, regrouped and started to look for a new home for the company, writes Brian McCullough for the Daily Local News.

The search was surprisingly easy, as Hughes soon found another building that met his criteria only two blocks from the old offices. As a result Synchrony, which provides both scientific and marketing advice to companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device fields, recently reopened at 22 N. Church St., in an old West Chester farmhouse.

“It’s a great space,” noted Hughes, as after paying $1.1 million for the building, the company’s founder, President and CEO has put in an additional $1 million to turn it into a unique setting for his employees.

The new offices have high ceilings with exposed brick walls, an open layout with meeting spaces enclosed by glass, a distinct three-story staircase, and a hoist to the fourth-floor loft that years ago, was used to get products to the upper floors.

Instead of putting up walls around the areas where the hoist operated, Hughes has embraced the uniqueness it brings to the space and put in large windows to provide natural light throughout the building. Hughes also plans to install glass ceilings in the areas below the hoist so that the structure is visible from every floor.

Synchrony, which currently has over 40 full-time employees and close to 30 independent contractors, is now looking ahead.

“Our primary goal for this last 12 to 18 months has been to move the new headquarters into West Chester,” said Hughes. “Our next goals are to open another place, either in New York City or just outside of New York City, and to establish a place on the West Coast because we have a lot of business on the West Coast.”

Read more about the property’s history at the Daily Local News here.