Expansion projects under way for banks, credit union

By KRISTI ALBERTSON

The Daily Inter Lake

Banks and credit unions across the Flathead are building new branches, adding on to old buildings and acquiring other holding companies as the valley's financial-industry boom continues.

Construction is scheduled to commence any day on a new First Interstate Bank branch at Hutton Ranch Plaza.

The $998,000 building will be a little over 5,700 square feet. It will be a full-scale bank with all the usual banking functions, including drive-in lanes and a commercial window, said Bob Schneider, president of the downtown Kalispell branch.

The permits and paperwork were finalized last week. Weather permitting, the bank could open sometime next spring, he said, possibly in late April or early May.

"And we're not abandoning the downtown branch," Schneider said. "With the rooftops and the retail expansion north of town, we had to have a presence north of town."

Flathead Bank will also build a branch at Hutton Ranch Plaza, but at this time plans are "real preliminary," President Doug Tillett said.

"It's going to be awhile, but we have entered into an agreement for a place there to build a bank building," he said. "It's quite preliminary, but we are moving ahead with that project."

Like Schneider, Tillett believes building a branch in north Kalispell will be a good business move.

"We've got a number of customers already in Kalispell. That's a growing market," he said. "We'd like to take care of our customers and get a little of that business up there, too."

At this time, Tillett doesn't know how big the new branch will be or what it will cost. He does know it will be a full-service bank that will be fully staffed.

Before the bank can be built, however, it has to be approved by the Montana Division of Banking and Financial Institutions, he said. Approval usually takes about three months, but at this time, Flathead Bank hasn't started the process.

"I expect it'll probably be up to a year before we're in it," Tillett said.

Work on a new Heritage Bank could begin sometime this month, said manager Craig Ostman.

The bank, currently located in Southfield Park Plaza on U.S. 93 South, will relocate to a pad in front of Red Lion Hotel Kalispell.

"We wanted to have a better location, and we thought that being in the center of Kalispell would be the best location we could have, right on Main Street," Ostman said. "We looked at other locations around, and we felt that being centrally located would give us the best exposure and help us give the best commitment to Kalispell and the valley."

The new building will be about 3,000 square feet, and the bank will hire new employees in all departments, Ostman said. It will be a full-service bank with two drive-in lanes and a drive-up ATM.

The target for completion is May 31, he said, so the new bank should be open sometime in June.

Park Side Federal Credit Union plans to build a new building behind Safeway in Whitefish.

"We're really excited," said Dan

Leclerc, executive vice president. "We've outgrown our current facility. We don't have room to hire someone if we had to."

Park Side bought a couple of acres from the city, which owns the land south of The Wave aquatic and health center, he said. A developer purchased the rest and plans to grade it before construction begins.

"Once they're done, we can start building," Leclerc said.

He says he hopes construction can commence by midsummer and will only take 9 to 12 months.

"We're hoping to be moved in sometime in 2008," he said.

Right now plans for the new building are still in the works.

"We're in the process of working on those right now," Leclerc said. "That can be a process. We're working on budget, and construction costs keep going up and up and up."

The city recently bought the block on which the current building stands, hoping to preserve the open space there, Leclerc said.

Work is nearly finished on Glacier Bank's downtown Kalispell branch expansion, which began in January 2005.

"I think the public will notice a real change to our Glacier Bank office in downtown Kalispell here in the coming weeks," President Bob Nystuen said.

Crews are ready to start pouring concrete for a new elevator shaft, he said, and soon more work on the building's exterior will begin. When complete, the new building - the old Conlin's Furniture building - should be a replica of original Glacier Bank building across the street.

A skybridge spanning Second Street West will connect the two. It will go up in mid-November.

"That's a date that's pretty firm," Nystuen said.

The rest of the interior remodeling will be finished by the end of the year, he said.

Glacier Bank's new Bigfork branch is also "progressing along," Nystuen said. Crews broke ground earlier this year just south of the current Glacier Bank in the IGA Mall.

The framing is well under way, and the trusses are going up. The finished building will be two stories with 3,500 square feet on each floor. It will have four drive-in lanes and an ATM.

Employees will be able to move into the new building early next year, Nystuen said, maybe by February.

Plans are still in the works for the new Glacier Bank facility in Whitefish on the corner of U.S. 93 and JP Road. It will definitely be a drive-through facility and may include more, said Russ Porter, president of the Whitefish branch.

"We're in the planning stage for exactly what we're going to put out there," he said.

Porter said he hopes the planning portion of the project will be completed within 60 days. When it's over, the bank will put the project out for bid.

"Our goal is to have it up and operational by no later than this time next year, hopefully mid-year," he said.

On Thursday, the Federal Reserve Board approved Glacier Bancorp's application to acquire Billings-based Citizens Development Co. and its subsidiary banks, which include two First Citizens Banks in the Flathead Valley.

The company has not yet decided what to do with the Columbia Falls bank, but the Kalispell bank on the corner of Whitefish Stage Road and West Reserve Drive will become a Glacier Bank branch, Nystuen said.

"We're excited about acquiring another branch in north Kalispell," he said.

After the merger, Glacier Bank, already the second-largest depository organization in the state, will control about $1.8 billion in deposits - nearly 15 percent of the state's total.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com