A Wichita-based credit union is expanding into Lawrence, and other member-owned financial institutions are looking into following its lead.

“It’s a growth community,” said Marla Marsh, president of the Kansas Credit Union Assn., who has been visiting with members who have Lawrence in their expansion sights. “I think all financial institutions are looking for growth communities.”

Boeing Wichita Credit Union found what it was looking for in northwest Lawrence. The 75-year-old cooperative is scheduled to open a branch Dec. 1 at Westgate Shops, 4821 W. Sixth St.

The new location – next to Marisco’s, inside the former home of the Elephant’s Trunk children’s store – will be the credit union’s first outside the Wichita area, where it has nine branches.

The Lawrence branch will be the first of four that Boeing Wichita Credit Union intends to open during the next five years in northeast Kansas, adding to the credit union’s 46,000 members and $412 million in assets. Officials already are looking for a site in southern Lawrence to help expand lending programs through auto dealers such as Ellena Honda and Laird Noller Automotive.

“The credit union is in a growth mode right now, and our research tells us that northeast Kansas is where our greatest opportunities are,” said Chuck Bullock, vice president for sales and chief lending officer. “Lawrence will serve as our hub for growth.”

As a community credit union, Boeing Wichita Credit Union is open to anyone who wants to join. It already has about 2,000 members in Douglas County, many of them Kansas University students from the Wichita area or otherwise connected to Boeing employees – both current and former – and the aerospace giant’s suppliers, contractors and other operations.

Lawrence makes ‘sense’

Lawrence boasts several factors that make the community attractive for expansion, Bullock said: a steady and geographically diverse roster of KU students, faculty and staff; growing residential and commercial real estate markets; and a relative lack of credit unions, when compared with traditional banks already in the market.

“Lawrence, demographically, just makes a lot of sense,” Bullock said.

Overseeing the branch will be Pat Wildeman, who joined the credit union as vice president and market executive for northeast Kansas and has nearly 20 years of experience in banking and mortgage lending. Her assistant will be Chris Pagoyo, who has branch management experience with the credit union in Wichita.

Marsh, of the Kansas Credit Union Assn., expects other credit unions to consider Lawrence for expansion, given the community’s robust growth and always-renewing crop of college students looking to establish financial relationships.

There are 121 credit unions operating in the state, with more than 500,000 members and about $3 billion in assets, Marsh said.

In Lawrence there are five – Free State Credit Union, Jayhawk Federal Credit Union, KU Credit Union, Midwest Regional Credit Union and Wakarusa Valley Credit Union – to compete with dozens of bank branches in town, a list that continues to grow longer as the city expands.

With only one out of every five consumers of financial services signed up as a member of a credit union, Marsh said, the economic potential is evident.

“There’s also the growth that’s coming out from Kansas City, Johnson County, Wyandotte County – they’re all just melding together, so it’s a natural,” said Marsh, who noted that Topeka was inching closer to Lawrence from the west. “It’s going to be a corridor of growth through there.”

Checking around

Among the credit unions said to be considering Lawrence is Lenexa-based CommunityAmerica Credit Union. CommunityAmerica, with 112,000 members, bills itself as the fastest-growing financial institution in the Kansas City metro area, and counts Lawrence-based Golf Course Superintendents Association of America among its “select employee groups.”

Kansas Super Chief Credit Union, based in Topeka, has considered Lawrence for a new office but has yet to commit. Two of Super Chief’s board members live in Lawrence, where the city’s reputation as “a somewhat liberal city” could make the town a “natural fit” for more credit unions, said Ron Smeltzer, Super Chief’s executive vice president.

“It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for us to someday be there,” said Smeltzer, whose credit union has 25,000 members and $120 million in assets. “It’s just a great town and I don’t blame anyone for looking at it. :

“Naturally I’m a little biased, but our credit union, specifically, I think would be an outstanding fit for that community.”