Joined by employees, board members, city officials and the Merrill Area Chamber of Commerce, Park City Credit Union broke ground Wednesday on a new 26,000 square-foot headquarters at the southeast corner of Highway 64 and Pine Ridge Avenue.
“Today is truly an historic day for a number of reasons and on a number of levels,” said Park City board president Jim Richardson. “We can look at the history of Park City Credit Union and see 79 years of service to members and community which has brought us to this day and this event. Our hope is that the Park City organization and the Park City family will benefit greatly from this building and all it is intended to bring with it.”
The building site is part of 28 acres of property Park City Credit Union purchased seven years ago. Of that purchase, 25 acres was sold to Walmart for the development of the Merrill Supercenter.
The credit union at that time did not have immediate plans to develop the remaining three acres at the corner of Pine Ridge Avenue and Hwy. 64. However, the past five years have been a time of rapid growth for Park City, so the right time to build has arrived, noted CEO Val Mindak.
“This is the right time to do it,” Mindak said. “We’ve outgrown the space at all of our locations.”
To provide services to customers on the east side, Park City opened a temporary branch next to Lee’s Piggly Wiggly in December 2015. Once the new facility is fully operational, that temporary branch will close, Mindak noted.
The new development, projected to open in late summer 2018, will become a vibrant center for deposit, lending, investments, creative thinking and community collaboration. The two-story building will feature a full service branch, drive-thru services, investment center, lending/mortgage center, loan processing center, call center, IT, accounting, and marketing departments. Park City’s new headquarters will also have a 2,500-square-foot café/bistro that will maintain its own hours of operation and drive-thru window to provide additional convenience for members and is open to the public seven days a week.
Mindak noted that a separate announcement will be made later regarding the operation of the bistro.
During the groundbreaking event, attendees were invited to sign the I-beam that will become part of a Park City Credit Union history display in the lobby of the new facility.
Mindak said the credit union is proud to deepen its commitment to Merrill with the new headquarters building.
“It’s going to be very exciting to the city of Merrill and help this corner continue to grow,” she said.
The La Macchia Group LLC, a Milwaukee-based design-build firm that specializes in financial institution projects, is leading construction. Daigle Brothers and Mechanical, Inc., are also working on the project.
The Summer 2018 opening of the new headquarters will coincide with the credit union’s 80th anniversary.
Park City has more than $175 million in total assets serving approximately 20,000 members. The credit union employs more than 80 personnel serving members at eight branches throughout Merrill, Tomahawk, Minocqua and Rhinelander.
Upon opening the new headquarters, the current main office lobby located at 300 E. Second St., which dates back to 1977, will close with drive-thru services only continuing at that location. The branch inside Dave’s County Market at 300 E. First St., which opened in August 2015, will continue as a full service branch.