photo by: Courtesy: RCB Bank

A rendering for the new RCB Bank at 3300 W. Sixth Street is shown.

A bank inside a convenience store always worried me. A line of credit and Slim Jims in the same spot could ruin me. But now I have word of a bank that is completely taking over a convenience store location.

Plans have been filed by RCB Bank to take over the vacant gas station/convenience store at 3300 W. Sixth St. If you remember, that used to be the old Miller Mart convenience store that perhaps was more famous for serving as a bit of an incubator for restaurants. Biemer’s BBQ, Basil Leaf Cafe and others got their start in a corner of the convenience store building.

But the convenience store has been empty for months now. RCB has purchased the building and has filed plans to do a complete remodel and small expansion of the building to convert it into a full-service bank with a drive-thru.

3300 W 6th St, Lawrence, KS 66049

If you aren’t familiar with RCB Bank, you haven’t been looking close enough. The bank has been in Lawrence since 2016, but they are a bit difficult to find, which is a major reason for the new location. The bank is located in an office complex at 1201 Wakarusa Drive.

“It is a great facility but it is designed more for office space rather than retail banking,” said Chris Kollman, market president for RCB. “We are a retail bank. We want to be a part of the community.”

RCB entered the Lawrence market in 2016 when it purchased all the CornerBank locations in Kansas. In Lawrence, CornerBank had just the one location at 1201 Wakarusa, which it primarily was using as a loan-processing center.

RCB has broader plans for the Lawrence market. It offers both personal and commercial banking options, with all the checking and savings account options, plus other similar services. It also does home, business and agricultural lending.

The bank is based out of Claremore, Okla., and is in growth mode, particularly in Kansas. The bank company earlier this year purchased Hutchinson-based Central Bank and Trust. With that acquisition, RCB will have $3.1 billion in assets and 58 locations in Oklahoma and Kansas. That’s big enough that RCB can be a significant lender in the community, Kollman said.

“Our size allows us to do larger projects, and we can do them in-house,” Kollman said. “There are projects that we can do in house that smaller banks would have to find partners in order to participate.”

Now, RCB just needs to become more visible in the community and get the word out about its service and philosophy, Kollman said. He said the bank has invested heavily in mobile banking technology, is a strong mortgage lender, and really tries to adapt to each market it is in.

“Each branch of RCB Bank really focuses on serving the individual community where it is located,” Kollman said. “Lawrence is such a strong community. It is very forward-thinking and progressive. RCB Bank is forward-thinking and progressive. It just looks like a community that really fits our philosophy.”

The bank’s site plan still needs final approval from city planners, but expect construction work to begin in the next several weeks on the project. The bank also bought the site directly behind the convenience store location. That lot houses Tortas Jalisco Mexican restaurant. Kollman said the Mexican restaurant will remain in place. The bank purchased the property to give it adequate room to install a drive-thru lane for the bank. Plans call for the bank to open in February.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Since we’re talking about a banking expansion in Lawrence, this is as good an opportunity as ever to do an update on the general banking market in town. It is always kind of interesting to see who the biggest players are in town, and how that market is changing. The FDIC puts out a report once a year that ranks each bank via the size of its deposits. The latest report available is for deposits on hand as of June 2017.

That report highlights that RCB has a lot of room to grow in Lawrence. It ranked No. 23 out of the 23 banks that have a location in Douglas County, with just $2.8 million in deposits within Douglas County. But when you look at the total amount of deposits the bank has companywide, it is the eighth largest bank operating in Douglas County, as of June 2017. Bank Midwest is another example of a larger bank that has come into the Lawrence market by purchasing a smaller bank. It recently took over ownership of Peoples Bank. A slightly different situation is Capitol Federal, which already is a large player in Lawrence, has a deal to purchase Capital City Bank. That deal may end up increasing Capitol Federal’s deposits enough to make it the largest bank in Douglas County in terms of deposits. As you can see below, that race has grown pretty tight. Neither the Bank Midwest nor Capitol Federal deal is reflected in the 2017 numbers.

But let’s take a look at how the banking market stacks up in Lawrence. Here’s a list of all the banks with locations in Douglas County, ranked by the amount of deposits they have within the county.

• U.S. Bank: $465.6 million locally, 20.4 percent of the market.

• Capitol Federal Savings Bank: $453 million, 19.9 percent.

• Commerce Bank: $212.6 million, 9.3 percent.

• Central Bank of the Midwest: $204.3 million, 8.9 percent.

• Bank of America: $124 million 5.4 percent.

• Intrust Bank: $119.8 million 5.2 percent.

• Mid-America Bank: $95.0 million 4.1 percent.

• Great American Bank: $84.2 million 3.7 percent.

• University National Bank: $71.3 million 3.1 percent.

• Baldwin State Bank: $65.4 million, 2.8 percent.

• Peoples Bank: $53.2 million, 2.3 percent.

• Central National Bank: $50.2 million, 2.2 percent.

• Capital City Bank: $46.4, 2.0 percent.

• Kaw Valley State Bank: $45 million, 1.9 percent.

• Sunflower Bank: $36.9 million, 1.6 percent.

• First State Bank and Trust: $28.7 million, 1.2 percent.

• Landmark National Bank: $24.5 million, 1.0 percent.

• Emprise Bank: $24.3 million, 1.0 percent.

• UMB Bank: $24 million, 1.0 percent.

• The Kansas State Bank, $16.1 million, 0.7 percent.

• Silver Lake Bank: $15.8 million, 0.7 percent.

• Mutual Savings Association: $9.2 million, 0.4 percent.

• RCB Bank: $2.8 million, 0.1 percent.