Wondering what’s going behind the fencing at 21st and Rock Road? Here’s the answer.
There’s a new — and familiar — business coming to the southeast corner of 21st and Rock Road where a gas station used to be at Bradley Fair.
Fidelity Bank is moving from its 21-year home on the back side of the lifestyle center along North Bradley Fair Parkway to one of the east side’s most-premier addresses.
“This really came about because we had the opportunity to move to my opinion the best marquee corner at Bradley Fair,” said Aaron Bastian, Fidelity president and CEO.
He said it’s an awesome space from which to serve customers, and the bank will have substantially better visibility, too.
Michelle Wolz, Fidelity’s director of consumer banking, called it “our new flagship branch of east Wichita.”
The new branch will be similar to the existing one in a lot of ways, though it will have a new look and feel along with a new color scheme.
Also, Wolz said there will be a more streamlined focus on the commercial experience, including a dedicated drive-through lane for commercial customers.
When the previous gas station on the corner was demolished last year, there was a lot of speculation about what would go into the space.
“We’re always looking to . . . continuously evolve our mix of tenants,” said Jessica Branning, Bradley Fair general manager.
She said tenants such as Fidelity Bank allow customers to take care of a lot of their needs in one place.
As more and more banking is done online, Wolz said there’s still a need for brick-and-mortar banks.
“We do continue to see a steady flow of traffic into our branches.”
She said Bradley Fair has a great ingress-egress plan to make it convenient for customers to get in and out of the busy center.
There will be entrances on Rock Road and 21st Street.
Fidelity will break ground around April, and the new branch should be ready late this year or early next.
Shelden Architecture and Hutton are working on the new building.
Bastian said the bank owns its current building, so it will be looking to sell or lease the 3,518-square-foot space.
In addition to being at the center for more than two decades, Bastian noted that the bank has been in support of Bradley Fair since it gave the original loan to start the center in 1990.
“It’s a deep relationship,” he said.
So deep that he’s likely to get a break on rent at the new 2,700-square-foot space?
“I would love for it to work that way, but I doubt it does.”