Community Credit Union opening downtown

La Crosse Tribune, Oct 08, 2004 by Cahalan, Steve

After a major building renovation, Community Credit Union will hold a grand opening today and Saturday at its new retail branch office at 311 Main St. in downtown La Crosse.

"This building's going to be a tremendous piece of the vitality in our downtown," Mayor John Medinger said Thursday at a press conference.

"We're very proud of what was accomplished with this restoration project," said Chris Butler, the credit union's president and chief executive officer.

Today's activities, such as tours, will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a ribbon cutting at noon.

Saturday's activities will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The branch office will begin operating Monday.

Last year, the credit union bought three century-old buildings that formerly housed North Central Trust CO., which moved to the former Isola Laminate Systems headquarters building at 230 Front St. N. The credit union uses two of the buildings for its new branch office and for its corporate offices, which previously were in Onalaska, Wis.

Of the three buildings, the west one was gutted, leaving nothing but floors and brick walls. Its renovation began a year ago and was completed this week. The branch office is on the first floor, corporate offices are on the second and third floors, and the training center for employees is in the basement.

The center building houses the credit union's call center and other offices. The east building is for lease.

Renovating the west building took longer than expected, Butler said.

"We reinforced the floors with columns and beams and had to reinforce the foundation," he said. "We knew there would be things we couldn't see (that had to be addressed) until they were uncovered," he said.

"We made a commitment early on to do (the renovation) right."

Butler, who declined to say how much the renovation cost, is "very happy" with the work.

While it's in a historic setting, the branch office has modern features, such as four computer stations available for members to do their banking online.

Elsewhere in the office, members will conduct their business with a teller via a video screen and transactions will be sent through a tube, much like an outdoor banking drive-through.

Community Credit Union wanted to have a branch office in downtown LaCrosse and had outgrown its support center in Onalaska, Butler said. So it bought the three connecting downtown buildings when they became available.

About 40 people work at the new branch office and headquarters location.