Banks across the country are finding new ways to use their real estate—to serve customers, engage their communities or lend a hand. In the gallery above, check out five banks whose branches serve a creative purpose beyond tellers and transactions.
First National Bank’s teller lobby in Bastrop, Texas, features a mural showing local history from Spanish settlement to the present. School groups often drop by for field trips to learn about local history, says the bank’s marketing officer, Connie Cruise Juarez.
State-chartered Citizens Bank of Edmond took an underused bank-owned space near its Edmond, Okla., headquarters and repurposed it as a community coworking space.
“We have . . . five different companies that I know of that are working together with . . . million-dollar deals,” says Vault 405 community manager Tabatha Thurman. “That would have never happened if they weren’t part of our coworking space.”
HomeTown Bank’s Waconia, Minn., branch opened in a building that was in a prime location but too big for the bank’s needs. The team filled the extra space with local coffee brand Mocha Monkey. The popular coffee shop (which stays open after banking hours; the bank lobby is secured with a grill when the bank is closed) ended up bringing in new customers. It “brought so many people through our doors in an otherwise really difficult industry to get people to walk in and check out a brand new bank,” says VP Michael Orth.
Sound Community Bank’s branch in Port Ludlow, Wash., offers a portion of its branch building at no charge to the Port Ludlow Art League, a community of over 100 Olympic Peninsula artists working in photography, pottery, jewelry, glass, fiber arts and cards, among other media. “We support them extensively in a variety of endeavors,” says bank VP Brady Robb.
Several years ago, First International Bank and Trust, based in Watford City, N.D., redeveloped its Main Street headquarters to include a steakhouse and saloon, community amenities that the small Great Plains town needed. It took some time, but CEO Steve Stenejhem says the concept eventually took off, and now the bank builds restaurant space into all its new branches, generating non-interest income. The Bakken oil boom brought lots of new residents, and today the bank hosts two locations (in Watford City and Bismarck) of the popular Stonehome microbrewery and restaurant.
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