You may have noticed a new BECU location in Lower Queen Anne over the last couple of months. The branch opened at 29 W Mercer St. back in December, and will be announcing its official induction to the neighborhood with a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday, February 4.
To cement its commitment to the Queen Anne Community, BECU will also be making contributions to the Queen Anne Helpline, dedicated to providing social services and assistance to the surrounding community, and the Plymouth Housing Group, a neighborhood non-profit that works to provide affordable housing options for homeless and low-income people in the Seattle area.
On Friday, February 5 and Saturday, February 6 BECU representatives will be promoting the new branch by handing out $2,000 worth of $1 bills each day around Queen Anne. On Friday reps will be walking around Lower Queen Anne, near the Metropolitan Market, from 10:30 a.m. until they run out of cash. On Saturday they’ll be at the top of the hill, near the closed-down Blockbuster, starting at 9:30 a.m.
I spoke with CEO Gary Oakland earlier this week about BECU’s plans and why they chose to open the only new branch in 2009 right here in Queen Anne.
“It’s actually been someplace that we’ve been interested in placing a location for quite some time,” Oakland said, noting that the credit union has a large concentration of members in the area. “There’s not a great deal of credit union presence down there.”
Since opening on December 7, the new branch has signed up 167 new members. The credit union plans to plant routes in the area, according to Oakland, who said they are considering neighboring South Lake Union for another location.
What distinguishes BECU from your regular neighborhood bank? According to Oakland, “Essentially it just boils down to the fact that we operate as a cooperative model, based on members bringing deposits in, and the credit union being able to turn around and loan those deposits out to other members…All of the returns are returned to the members, either in the form of high deposit rates and lower loan rates or deposit fees.”
(Disclosure: BECU is a sponsor of QueenAnneView).