Citibank construction begins in Bethesda (Photos)

Construction has begun on a new Citibank branch in downtown Bethesda. Fencing has been erected around the vacant TD Bank building at 8101 Wisconsin Avenue. The TD Bank branch has been closed for about a year. Despite the property's great potential for a fast food restaurant use, with a drive-thru arrangement already in place, we're stuck with yet another bank.

Forbright Bank closes downtown Bethesda branch

Forbright Bank has closed its downtown Bethesda branch at 4801 Montgomery Lane. Customers are being directed to the bank's 1700 Rockville Pike branch. The Chevy Chase-based bank is the third-largest Maryland bank. Forbright was originally known as Congressional Bank.

Bank branch on prime downtown Bethesda property to close

A prime piece of downtown Bethesda property could be back on the market soon. One reader who banks at the TD Bank at 8101 Wisconsin Avenue reports that they have received a branch closure notice for that location. It lists the closing date for the branch as April 26, 2024. The branch, directly across Wisconsin from The Bethesdan Hotel, opened on April 16, 2016.

While big banks have no shortage of funds, TD Bank did pour quite a bit of money into this branch. The property used to be a gas station, which had to be demolished and the land remediated from pollutants. Then the branch building and drive-thru had to be constructed. Now, after only eight years in operation, the bank is apparently closing. Of course, the highly-desirable location of the property will now activate many a hot stove discussion in the real estate-watching community.

Primis Bank closing downtown Bethesda branch

Primis Bank will permanently close its downtown Bethesda branch at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda on Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 12:00 PM. The McLean-based company says all deposits and loans from this branch will be transferred to the Rockville branch at 11200 Rockville Pike. I noticed that a number of the bank's Virginia branches are scheduled to close the same day. Primis was formerly Sonabank (Southern National Bancorp of Virginia, Inc.) until it rebranded last year.

Citizens Bank now open in downtown Bethesda (Photos)

Citizens Bank has opened at 7637 Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda. It was previously an HSBC branch, and is one of 80 east coast HSBC locations acquired by Citizens last year. Note that the new bank does not have weekend hours. It is located in the Lionsgate condo building, and there is a public parking garage directly adjacent to the Lionsgate.

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).

Another Bethesda branch of Capital One bank to close

The Capital One branch at 4708 Bethesda Avenue was on a list of the bank's planned closures for 2021, and now we know when. I'm told that as of 5:00 PM on Wednesday, April 28, this branch will be permanently closed. Not only is Capital One massively downsizing its branch network in the region, but a new high-rise is also planned for the corner of Bethesda and Wisconsin Avenue. A Carroll Community Bank branch around the corner already closed, and Starbucks is going to move across Bethesda Avenue to 7200 Wisconsin.

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.

Chase Bank coming to Montrose Crossing

A vacant bank was fenced off earlier this year at the Montrose Crossing shopping center. Now the identity of the new bank is known. Chase Bank will be opening here in 2020. Construction is now underway to modify the bank to J.P. Morgan Chase specifications.

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 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.

Chase Bank sets opening date for newest downtown Bethesda branch

The number of banks continues to multiply in downtown Bethesda, with the newest competitor to enter the market now preparing to open its second downtown branch. Chase Bank will open August 13, 2019 at 7901 Wisconsin Avenue. The opening comes just months after their first downtown location debuted at 4749 Bethesda Avenue.

Inside 7901 Wisconsin, everything from furniture to counters and ATMs appears to be in place for next week's opening. Signage has also just been installed on the exterior of the building, and inside the bank. This space was previously home to another bank, Wells Fargo.

Old Bethesda bank revealed behind Wells Fargo sign

Workers removed the Wells Fargo sign from a closed bank branch on Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda, as the building is remodeled for an incoming Chase branch. Behind the sign was revealed an earlier bank tenant, First Fidelity Bank. That national bank, chartered in 1920, has been whittled down to Arizona and its home state of Oklahoma these days. But here we see evidence of its old branch in Bethesda.

Second Chase Bank branch coming to downtown Bethesda (Photos)

Banks are taking over downtown Bethesda, filling many of the spaces that were - or were expected to be - home to restaurants and retail. In some cases, major banks are doubling down on the overkill. The most recent was TD Bank, opening two branches a few blocks from each other. Now JP Morgan Chase is taking a cue from their rival, and opening a second branch at 7901 Wisconsin Avenue, just blocks from their soon-to-open branch at 4749 Bethesda Avenue. 

While Chase demolishes the interior space of the new Wisconsin branch where Wells Fargo used to be, they've set up an ATM in the parking lot. You've got to give Chase credit for finding a location by Chase Avenue.

Montgomery County's moribund, job-shedding economy has clearly opened a vacuum in vacant retail spaces that banks are stepping in to fill - much to the chagrin of residents seeking new dining and shopping options. The bank takeover is yet another - if lesser - example of how the disastrous Bethesda Downtown Plan has failed the community. Like most sector plans produced by our corrupt Planning Board and County Council, it was tailored behind-the-scenes to a specific set of developers' plans - not to a vision of creating a unique and vibrant urban area like County leaders had in the 1980s and 1990s, before the Montgomery County cartel seized power in 2002 with their "End Gridlock" [insert hysterical laughter and car horn sounds here] slate.