First Federal Invades Northwest Arkansas

First Federal Bank will be setting up a new Northwest Arkansas regional headquarters in the former Dave Fulton Century 21 building at 3460 College Ave., Suites A, B, C and D, in Fayetteville.

The 6,000-SF wooden building sits directly behind the bank’s north Fayetteville branch at 3460 N. College Ave. The plan is to use the new facility to consolidate administrative work and free up much needed space in First Federal’s area retail branches.

The publicly traded banking operation, which is headquartered in Harrison, took names during 2001 in Northwest Arkansas’ mortgage market. It did so much business, a centralized loan processing and closing facility is now needed to handle the institution’s growth.

Ross Mallioux, First Federal’s executive vice president, chief lending officer and regional manager for Northwest Arkansas, said the bank’s regional headquarters for Washington, Benton and Carroll counties will official move into the new location in May.

First Federal is headquartered in Harrison and has branch banks as far east as Mountain Home. The bank’s new Fayetteville digs were vacant for about a year before First Federal bought them from Fulton.

Mallioux said the bank will remodel both the interior and exterior of the building.

First Federal has about $700 million in assets and is the second largest chartering thrift in Arkansas.