Credit Union 1 plans new five-story facility

[mthq]

Credit Union 1 plans new five-story facility

Credit Union 1 on Thursday announced plans to build a five story, 56,000-square-foot headquarters building in South Anchorage.

The new building, on Abbott Road between the Carrs and Fred Meyer stores, will house all of its administrative offices, which currently are split between its main office in Midtown and an East Anchorage branch, said Tom Newins, a Credit Union 1 marketing manager.

The financial institution has been expanding fast and is running out of office space. The new building, designed by RIM Architects, will help Credit Union 1 alleviate the space crunch and give it room for expansion, Newins said.

The first floor will contain a branch lobby and a new day-care center for the children of Credit Union 1 employees. Most of the remaining four floors will house the credit union's administrative offices, Newins said.

"We're building it with some room to grow," he said. "Initially, there will be excess capacity."

With $458 million in assets and about 49,000 members, the financial institution is Alaska's second largest credit union, behind Alaska USA. It was created in 1995 when Frontier Alaska State and FedAlaska Federal credit unions merged.

In January, Credit Union 1 added about 5,000 member accounts and roughly $25 million in assets when it bought Fairbanks-based North County Credit Union, Newins said.

Credit Union 1 does not plan to close any of its five Anchorage-area branches when the new headquarters building is finished, Newins said.

Workers from Boslough Construction will begin work on the site in May, and Credit Union 1 intends to open the new building and relocate 100 to 120 of its Anchorage-area employees there by late next year, Newins said.

Plans for the new building include a four-lane drive-up teller station and a 24-hour ATM. Inside, the branch lobby will break from the traditional financial institution design with a look and feel more akin to a retail store than a credit union, Newins said.

Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union took a similar tack last year when it opened the branch at its new headquarters building on 36th Avenue, which features a lounge area and kiosk-style workstations scattered across the floor.

Newins said the Credit Union 1 branch will have similar design elements, though he could not provide many details about the building's design or an estimated project cost.

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renderings coming soon

[urbanguy]

^Sweet i was just gonna ask about some renderings haha

[mthq]

^after all those requests for the renderings on the Knik bridge, "renderings coming soon" should be my new saying

[urbanguy]

^You should add it to your sig