Truist signage installed at River Road bank branch

SunTrust at 5272 River Road in Bethesda is now officially Truist. The result of a merger between SunTrust and BB&T banks, the new branding is still being applied physically at branches nationwide. Yesterday, Truist signage was installed on the front of the bank, in the ground floor of the Kenwood Professional building. Last night, the sign was lit for the first time; this afternoon, workers on scaffolding were attaching anchor tenant signage for Truist near the top of the building (in the above photo, you can see the old SunTrust logo on the west-facing side still up there last night).

SunTrust Bank opens in Kenwood Professional Building

SunTrust Bank has opened in its permanent location in Suite 101 of the Kenwood Professional Building, at 5272 River Road in Bethesda. The branch had been up on the seventh floor since relocating from the Westwood Shopping Center last November, while awaiting completion of construction in this space.

SunTrust signage, mobile branch arrive at Kenwood Professional Building

SunTrust Bank's Westwood branch is relocating from the Westwood Shopping Center to the Kenwood Professional Building, as I reported over the summer. Over the weekend, a mobile branch unit arrived, and was parked in the bank's future front driveway. Yesterday, the bank's permanent signage was installed.

SunTrust Bank branch offers validated parking at nearby building in Bethesda

SunTrust Bank at 7435 Old Georgetown Road is acknowledging that a large portion of their clientele arrive via automobile, rather than walking. To that end, they are offering a new perk to customers. They are now validating parking for their customers at Bethesda Place II at 7600 Wisconsin Avenue.

Bring your parking ticket in when you come to do business at the bank, and they will validate it for you. While it's not as convenient as retail parking in the actual building where SunTrust is would have been, it's at least going to be validated, rather than paying in the public garage "nearby."

SunTrust Bank to close at Westwood Shopping Center, move to Kenwood Professional Building

The SunTrust Bank branch at 5450 Westbard Avenue, in the Westwood Shopping Center, will close on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 12:00 PM. They will then open a temporary branch on the 7th floor of the Kenwood Professional Building at 5272 River Road on Friday, November 22, 2019.

At a yet-undetermined future date, SunTrust will then move downstairs into the ground floor of the Kenwood Professional Building at 5272 River, where Gaylords Lamps & Shades is currently located. As I reported earlier this month, Gaylords is planning to move to downtown Bethesda this fall. If you've lived here more than about five or six years, you will recall that ground floor space with the little circular driveway used to be a bank.

The bad news - there will be no drive-thru at the new location. Safe deposit box owners will have to clean out their boxes before the move, as well. If you live on Westbard Avenue, you'll have a longer walk to the bank. And if you depend on drive-thru banking, you are simply out of luck.

SunTrust's announcement is another small, but interesting, clue about where Westwood Shopping Center owner Regency Center's thinking is these days. It's also a curious move by SunTrust. They're sure to lose some customers by virtue of the new, drive-thru-less location. But they did not necessarily have to make this move.

The part of the shopping center where SunTrust is located is not supposed to be demolished until the new Giant building opens. Theoretically, some of the existing tenants on SunTrust's side of the center could then move over to the retail spaces in that building. But SunTrust is choosing to move early.

So there's some room for speculation here. Is Regency still not meeting with existing tenants and spelling out all the terms for their future in detail? Will they indeed offer a below-market-rate rent to those tenants (not that SunTrust would need a lower rent)? Will they indeed be able to move over to new spaces before demolition of their current storefronts? Has the staging plan changed?

Stay tuned.

New Bethesda bank already cutting back hours

Is it the ongoing flight of the rich out of record-high-tax Montgomery County, our moribund County economy, or just too many banks in one area? Whatever the reason, the brand-new SunTrust branch in the Element 28 apartment building is already drastically reducing its business hours. The branch is entirely eliminating Saturday hours, and will now close at 3:00 PM on Mondays, instead of at 5:00 PM.

SunTrust Bank in downtown Bethesda to move next month

The SunTrust Bank branch in the historic building at 7500 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda will move next month to one of the newest buildings downtown. Its current location will close at noon on February 20, 2018. After a three-day moving process, the branch will reopen in its new home at 7535 Old Georgetown Road, in the ground floor of the Element 28 apartment tower, on February 23 at 9:00 AM.

If you need to go into a physical SunTrust branch during the closure, they are recommending the one at Chevy Chase Lake, at 8510 Connecticut Avenue. SunTrust also has a branch in the Westwood Shopping Center at 5450 Westbard Avenue, and in Chevy Chase at 4455 Willard Avenue.

SunTrust Bank leases retail space at Element 28 apartments in Bethesda (Photos)

If you thought downtown Bethesda had reached "peak bank" several years ago, you were wrong. SunTrust is opening a new branch in the ground floor of the new Element 28 luxury apartments at 7535 Old Georgetown Road, across from the Bethesda Metro station. That will deep-six any potential activation of the streetscape there after business hours, (but will actually be a great fit for residents upstairs seeking a good night's sleep in peace and quiet).

Banks have multiplied as nightlife has shrunk in Bethesda, after the "nighttime economy" initiative of Montgomery County Councilmember "Helpless" Hans Riemer instead tanked late night business downtown. Riemer's incoherent scheme, touted only by his allies in the local media, ended with eleven nightspots closing as a result of Helpless Hans' incompetence. 

Helpless Hans Riemer:
"What happened?"

The councilman had just finished destroying the food truck business in Montgomery County, with 96% of the trucks Bethesda workers had once enjoyed going out of business or retreating to D.C. Bar and restaurant owners who were told they would benefit from Riemer's plan instead were enraged to find out Riemer had taken steps to strengthen, rather than end, the County's monopoly control of liquor sales.