Chase banking branches coming to JAX

[blizz01]

From the Daily Record:

Plans filed for at least 5 area Chase banking offices
Southside, Beaches, Riverside, Mandarin, & St. John's Co.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=538946

[thelakelander]

Wait a minute.  Are they doing this despite possibly having to pay a mobility fee for a few locations?

[BrooklynSouth]

I live in 5 Points and Chase just sent me a flyer offering me $300 if I open a checking account and use it for at least 6 months. And then I got one from Wells Fargo offering me $50. The Chase offer sounds pretty good!

[JFman00]

Excellent. Tired of having to drive to Baymeadows.

[BrooklynSouth]

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/03/11/chase-planning-several-branches-across.html

"Plans call for: ... A 1,252-square-foot retail banking branch at 1661 Riverside Ave., at the corner of Margaret Street."

Google Maps is saying that address is in the condo building on top of Einstein Brother's bagels. Maybe an empty storefront?

[JeffreyS]

You would have thought if waiving Fees was the catalyst for new projects this announcement would have been held until after the moratorium vote. Like all the construction projects happening and in the pipeline the market is the basis.

[ben says]

Excellent. Tired of having to drive to Baymeadows.

+1

[Ocklawaha]

Wait a minute.  Are they doing this despite possibly having to pay a mobility fee for a few locations?

Naw, they've got confidence that the buffoons that run this city will trample the people and screw the fee. I mean, after all, who wants better roads, bridges, transit, sidewalks or trails - especially trails, right?

[simms3]

Wait a minute.  Are they doing this despite possibly having to pay a mobility fee for a few locations?

Correct.  Chase is entirely demographic driven and basically nothing else.  They open a business branch on the SS and client branches for SS workers in their respective neighborhoods (Beaches, SJC, Mandarin, Riverside/Avondale).  Obviously not targeting blue collar workers.  Surprised they wouldn't open downtown considering there are very few bank branches downtown (evidence of very few workers?).

Chase will have 5 branches + however many are already there (2-3?) and likely no more for a while...they will be spaced significantly apart and well located.  I'm sure another huge priority for Chase will be the ease of access for its customers, who can't just miss a branch and drive on to the next one.  In addition to demographics, it will be important for us to follow where exactly these branches are located...I will assume they will be "prime" pieces of real estate on the "going-home" side of major commuter arterial roads where people entering and exiting can have their own light and the traffic flow will be decent.  My guess is they will choose areas with better infrastructure already in place than in new areas that have yet to be built up.  Another sign that the mobility fee is a very important tool FOR development, not against.

[JFman00]

The extent of Chase's current presence in Jacksonville is the one branch off Baymeadows and an ATM at Neptune beach.

[fsujax]

2 Suntrusts, 3 Bof A's, BB&T, Vystar, TD Bank, Regions, 121 Financial, BBVA Compass, Duval Federal, Community First, Florida Bank, Jacksonville Bank, Everbank (Riverside Ave), Merchantile Bank, Wells Fargo, Synovus, etc. hardly counts as not many. Maybe not as much as Atlanta, but still quite a few options.

[JFman00]

I needed a bank that has branches in Chicagoland convenient to the parents.

[BrooklynSouth]

I use CommunityFirst Credit Union. No fee at Publix atms and I can walk into many other Jacksonville credit unions and do business at their teller windows. Their website is state of the art and they have mobile check uploads through a smartphone app. I want to keep my money local and stop feeding Wall Street, if possible.

[Cheshire Cat]

Another new bank in the mix.  First Southern Bank

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/472000/roger-bull/2013-03-11/first-southern-bank-plans-first-jacksonville-branch

[simms3]

2 Suntrusts, 3 Bof A's, BB&T, Vystar, TD Bank, Regions, 121 Financial, BBVA Compass, Duval Federal, Community First, Florida Bank, Jacksonville Bank, Everbank (Riverside Ave), Merchantile Bank, Wells Fargo, Synovus, etc. hardly counts as not many. Maybe not as much as Atlanta, but still quite a few options.

You must be a defensive lineman.  Can you quit sounding like an idiot?  Who said anything about Atlanta, which also does not have Chase branches in either DT or MT?  The subject is Chase Bank and it diverted to the Mobility Fee.  When you see a Schwab or a Chase or UBS (currently in PVB) or a CitiBank or a Northern Trust downtown, you'll know then that it trumps the SS or Ponte Vedra as the place where Jacksonville's big business is conducted.  There isn't a downtown in America without multiple national/regional commodity community bank branches and credit unions...even the government workers and entry level accountants need convenient access to their check/savings accounts!

Chase has chosen to open 2 branches on the SS, 1 in Mandarin, 1 in Riverside, 1 at the beaches, and 1 in SJC.  None downtown.  Besides speaking to the fact that having the demographics in place and the ability to select strategic sites to build bank branches trumps trumps the cost via "fee" to enter the market, I think it also speaks to the fact that the outside world still sees the SS as the city's business hub rather than DT.  Chase isn't a single working mother's bank, although she can just as easily open an account there.  It offers more services for people with a certain net worth and certain financial needs, usually the stereotypical white collar upper-middle to upper class businessman and his family.  I actually thought there were enough of these people working downtown to attract them there, and it would have been a "visibility" thing (it's hard to miss the backlit bright blue logos and motifs of their banks and buildings), but I don't think they see it the same way.  Yell at them if you have a problem with their decision to not locate downtown, don't yell at me for pointing it out.