Banks Put Their Money On Busy Joyce Location

A diligent search turned up no collective noun for banks, but they seem to cluster together much like used-car lots and churches.

Maybe a “deposit” of banks would be apropos. Case in point is the stretch of Joyce Boulevard between College Avenue and Vantage Drive in Fayetteville, where two new kids on the block are about to join four longtime residents.

Howard Hamilton, Northwest Arkansas regional president and chief operating officer of Liberty Bank of Arkansas, said he prefers the term “financial center” to describe the roughly half-mile length of Joyce where six bank branches are congregated. And a slightly broader view, from College to Crossover Road, takes in several more banks, including Bank of America, Metropolitan National Bank and Signature Bank.

“It could be referred to as Joyce Street rather than Wall Street,” he said with a laugh.

Liberty Bank employees will move into their new regional banking center at 1400 E. Joyce Blvd. sometime in May. Hamilton said the 22,000-SF building initially will house about 36 employees, with room to grow.

“It will be the first time that our executive management, our training, our deposit operations, loan operations, mortgage operations and human resources will all be in the same building, as well as marketing,” he said.

Just across the street and about a block west, Legacy National Bank has a branch under construction at 1325 E. Joyce.

Don Gibson, Legacy’s president and CEO, said the targeted opening date is Aug. 1. At 6,000 SF, it will be Legacy’s largest branch, staffed by up to 12 employees.

Not to be outdone is First Security Bank, which has remodeled existing branches, starting with its main banking center on Joyce. The bank also plans two new branches, said David Russell, market president for Fayetteville.

As for banks’ tendency to cluster in certain areas, banking executives said it’s all about traffic volume. And Joyce Boulevard certainly fills that bill — though Russell recalls much of the area was fields and forests as recently as the early 2000s. It has since become a major east-west thoroughfare for the city.

“Someone figured out years ago that Fayetteville was going to go that direction, and it certainly has,” said John O. Moore, president of Chambers Bank’s North Arkansas operations.

 

New Arrivals

Construction on Liberty Bank’s new building began last summer, with Nix Construction of Jonesboro taking out a $6.5 million building permit. The bank’s Northwest Arkansas operations currently are based at 4706 S. Thompson St. in Springdale, with other staff scattered throughout its local network.

Liberty originally planned to build the Joyce office in 2007, Hamilton said, but held off “because you could see the storm clouds building with the economy. We actually saw the sun break through, and we actually wish we would have done it when we first recognized the economy starting to change and turn, but when we did decide, we thought it was a good time.”  

Besides plenty of office space, the new building will have four conference rooms. It also will have an employee training area large enough to hold most of the staff at one time — a luxury for those used to the current cramped quarters.

The staff will include some new hires, Hamilton said. While the bank already offers trust and insurance services, it will have people designated to those areas in the new building. There will also be additional lending staff, he said.

The competition in the neighborhood is of no concern, Hamilton said.

“We were already competing with all those banks” along Joyce, he said. “If we were afraid of competition, we wouldn’t be in the banking business.”

Hamilton said Liberty Bank’s customer service sets it apart from the others. As an example, he said, the new bank will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays.

“Our customers tell us we offer a unique banking experience,” he said. “We get that comment frequently from our internal customers. I get emails from them on a regular basis, thanking us for the experience that they had and the way our staff takes care of them and answers their questions.”

Like Liberty Bank, Legacy National had plans to build on Joyce before the recession hit.

Patrick Swope, executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the bank formed in 2005 with the intention of becoming a top community bank in Northwest Arkansas. With locations in Rogers and Springdale, it bought the land for the Joyce branch in 2007.

Ken Shireman & Associates designed the building, and Milestone Construction Co. is the general contractor.

Like the other bankers on Joyce, Gibson and Swope cited the easy access of the location and its proximity to the Northwest Arkansas Mall and the surrounding shopping centers, as well as the nearby health services district.

“We know from experience customers like the convenience of Joyce,” Gibson said.

In addition to a full range of commercial and consumer services, drive-thru lanes and an ATM, the branch will offer investment services through its partner Wells Fargo.

“In our advertising and communications, we talk about local decisions, people you know and the service you deserve, and that’s who we are,” Gibson said. “Rather than focus on competition, and who’s there and around us, our focus is customers, and then being there for our customers to make those local decisions, develop those relationships and give them outstanding service.”

 

Sturdy Staples

Searcy-based First Security Bank entered the Northwest Arkansas market in 1999 with its banking center at 1219 E. Joyce.

“The feeling was that this was going to be a busy boulevard at some point in time, and it has certainly become that,” Russell said.

At that time, the bank’s staff occupied only the first floor, with the second floor leased out, he said. Now the bank fills the nearly 12,000-SF building, and houses its training, personnel and marketing departments in smaller buildings next door.

As for expansion plans, construction will start within a few weeks on a 2,000-SF branch on the lot of its existing branch at Meadow Street and College Avenue. Cone Construction will be the general contractor, and SCM Architects of Fayetteville and Little Rock designed the building.

Another new building will replace the branch at 5208 S. Thompson St., near Lake Fayetteville. Demolition of the current building should be within the next 90 days, Russell said, with construction likely starting within the next four months.

First Security also is planning a branch in west Fayetteville, Russell said, but he couldn’t give specifics because they have not yet closed on the property.

First Security takes pride not only in its customer service, but also the low turnover rate among staff, said Russell, himself an 11-year employee of the bank.

“We believe we differentiate ourselves with outstanding customer service delivered by unchanging faces,” Russell said. “We have a lot of stability in our staffing, and customers like to come in and see the same faces.”

When Regions Bank opened its 20,000-SF branch at Joyce and Vantage Drive, right across from the post office, in 2004, there wasn’t much else in that area. But the bank’s management foresaw that traffic counts would continue to grow, said Jerry Vest, president of Regions’ Northwest Arkansas operations.

“We could anticipate that that would be a high-traffic intersection, and figured someday in the plans there would be a stoplight there by the post office, and figured that would be a convenient in and out there for our customers,” Vest said.

While Regions doesn’t plan any changes to the building, Vest said it’s expanded its trust services and added a private banking person. Besides a full array of consumer banking services, the branch has a commercial lending specialist and trust services for both personal and institutional trusts.

However, “probably the largest employee base we have at that site is our insurance division,” he said, with both commercial and private lines of insurance.

In March 2009, Arvest Bank moved a branch from 1164 E. Joyce, now home of Waco Title Co., to its current location at 1627 E. Joyce, between Chambers and Regions.

Gaye Wilcox, Arvest’s sales manager for Fayetteville, said the Joyce Boulevard branch has always been one of the bank’s busiest in that city, and just outgrew its former space. The new one, at about 8,300 SF, is “one of the largest, if not the largest, prototype branches that Arvest builds,” Wilcox said. It’s also certified gold in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which Arvest is very proud of, she said.

“We just needed more drive-thrus, more teller stations, more staffing on the inside of the location to take care of all the customer traffic,” she said. “Certainly the growth in that area over the years has been tremendous. So [it was] absolutely necessary to build up in anticipation of that growth.”

She estimated between 25 and 30 employees staff the branch, but added her guess may be a bit on the low side.

Asked if the nearby competition was a concern, Wilcox said, “No, I would say we enjoy good competition.

“Our main way that we like to set ourselves apart is it’s really all about the teammates that we have and our customer service abilities — giving the best customer service possible and meeting our customers’ expectations is really what we’re all about.”

The Chambers Bank building at 1685 E. Joyce, built around the mid-’90s, has the distinction of being the oldest on this stretch of the boulevard. Chambers Bancshares Inc. has owned the building since 1999, said Moore, who is also the bank’s chief credit officer.

He said there’s been talk about making some improvements to the building since before Liberty and Legacy broke ground in that area, but nothing’s on the drawing boards.

Instead, Chambers Bank is focusing on using technology to give customers products like mobile banking, which will be fully rolled out in May, and e-statements.

The bank has also made changes to its management structure, Moore said. For instance, Mike Donnell, who was the bank’s chief financial officer, is now both president and CFO.

Owner John Ed Chambers and CEO Bill Donnell — Mike Donnell’s father — are still very involved with the bank, Moore said, but want to shift some of the day-to-day operations to the next generation.

“We’re trying to pull together a team that will carry Chambers Bank into the future,” he said.

Moore added, “Just like every other bank in Northwest Arkansas, Chambers Bank has taken a couple of hits, but we are at a point that we feel like and are confident the Northwest Arkansas market continues to be strong and a wonderful opportunity for everyone, and we want to continue to be part of the opportunity and, to tell you the truth, to lead the way in every chance that we get.

“Chambers Bank’s roots would be in taking care of people. So we’re going to rely more on the relationship and technology than we will on bricks and mortar.”