Russellville bank plans branch in Fayetteville

Russellville-chartered First State Bank (FSB) plans to build its first full-service branch in Northwest Arkansas on Van Asche Drive in Fayetteville.

In August, the bank closed a real estate deal to buy 1.18 acres at the northwest corner of Van Asche and Investment drives, west of Generations Bank. The purchase price of $745,311 equals $14.50 per square foot. An entity controlled by Little Rock developer Leonard Boen was the seller.

The 6,200-square-foot office building will replace FSB’s existing Fayetteville office in leased space nearby. It opened as a loan processing office (LPO) two years ago.

President and COO Charles “Chip” Blanchard said the LPO’s success sped up the company’s timeline of building something permanent in Northwest Arkansas.

“We’ve had very good success with the ITM [interactive teller machine] as far as being able to fully bank people,” Blanchard said. “But we’re at a point now where we need to be able to have full-service branch operations and customer service.”

FSB will occupy about 3,200 square feet in the new building and lease the remaining space.

“That office will allow us to further develop the [banking] relationships that we’ve got and, hopefully, open some new doors as well,” Blanchard said.

Blanchard said the company’s expansion plans remain subject to city and regulatory approval. He’s hopeful to break ground in a couple of months and have the building completed by the second quarter of 2022.

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., FSB, with assets of $412.8 million as of March 16, is the lone subsidiary of Russellville-based First State Banking Corp. It has four offices in Russellville and a branch in Ola (Yell County).

FSB is a state-chartered bank supervised by the Federal Reserve.