According to WaMu senior vice president of planning and franchise development Karen Curtin, most of the new sites will be former retail shops that are similar in size. "We have a mix of locations," Curtin tells GlobeSt.com. "We're very interested in retail sites. Generally, we target sites in the 3,000- to 3,500-sf range but we will address that up or down based on market opportunities--and certainly on market cost.
Curtin won't disclose details on any of the eight new leases that have been signed so far, though GlobeSt.com reported earlier this year that the bank arranged a 10-year lease at $125 per sf for its first Manhattan lease, a 3,500-sf space at 498 Seventh Ave. Its second city location, 2139 Broadway, was revealed by GlobeSt.com earlier this month. The 5,219-sf space carries an asking price of $225 per sf.
"The most important thing is that before we ever sign a deal for a location we have a very specific financial model that we put every site through," Curtin tells GlobeSt.com. "If it doesn't meet basic hurdle rates, we don't move forward. All of these sites have been put through the scrutiny of our model and have come out on top, so we're moving ahead."
Curtin says WaMu hopes to have several of the new locations open this summer, with the remainder to follow in the fall. Of the 20 new sites, 10 are currently operating as Dime Savings branches. WaMu completed its $5.2 billion acquisition of Dime in January and plans to convert those branches by late May. In addition to the 10 Dime locations and the aforementioned Seventh Avenue and Broadway sites, WaMu has signed new leases at 13th Street and Broadway, 700 Avenue of the Americas, 31st Street and Park Ave., 40th Street and Lexington Avenue, Broadway and Chambers Street, 45th Street and Lexington Avenue. A Dime branch at Malcolm X Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Harlem was opened just prior to the WaMu acquisition.
The new branches will utilize WaMu's "Occasio," model, which company officials say resembles a cutting-edge retail environment. Employees wear Gap-style khaki and the traditional teller system has been eliminated. Customers are escorted to the appropriate service area by "concierges" and cash is dispensed automatically. Two existing WaMu branches--the Walt Whitman branch in the Huntington Square Mall in East Northport, LI, NY and the branch at 48th Street and Fifth Avenue--will be retrofitted as Ocassio locations.
Curtin would not go into specifics regarding long-term strategies for the bank but said that WaMu "intends to have an enormous presence in the tri-state area; not just in Manhattan but all over that area. That presence will "absolutely" include the outer boroughs, Curtin says. "Those are important markets. We think they best serve our core, which is the middle-market consumer."
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