Brown Deer-based Bank Mutual Corp. has completed the sale of five of its branch buildings to La Crosse-based Marine Credit Union for about $2.9 million.
The transaction is related to Marine’s recent purchase of five Bank Mutual branches in Kenosha, Racine and Sheboygan counties. The acquisition closed Aug. 25 and the branches reopened as Marine Credit Union on Aug. 28.
The buildings sold were: 3039 S. Green Bay Road, Mount Pleasant for $754,900; 5133 Douglas Ave., Caledonia for $817,800; 6310 Green Bay Road, Kenosha for $824,100; 801 N. Eighth St., Sheboygan for $308,200; and 730 N. Ninth St., Sheboygan for $195,000.
The companies announced the purchase in April. The sale included $52.6 million in deposits and $13.2 million in loans at those branches. There are about 20 employees among the five branches, all of whom Marine planned to hire.
With the branch purchase, Marine Credit Union is adding Walworth County to its service area, and about 3,000 customers. After the deal closes, Marine will have 33 branches serving 60,000 members in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. It has about 420 employees, about 60 of whom are in the Milwaukee market. The credit union focuses on lending to underserved communities, or those turned down by traditional financial institutions. It has grown recently as demand for its loans has increased, and now has about $110 million in its Milwaukee-area loan portfolio.
With the branch sale, Brown Deer-based Bank Mutual Corp. will no longer have branches in the Racine, Kenosha and Sheboygan markets. But it will open a new residential loan office in the Racine/Kenosha area to house a loan officer in that market. In April, Bank Mutual also made plans to consolidate two other retail branches, in Monona and Neenah, into existing branches nearby. Together, the changes were expected to cost $250,000, but result in a $1.3 million annual net benefit to pre-tax earnings.
Bank Mutual is in the process of being acquired by Green Bay-based Associated Banc-Corp., and the companies disclosed to regulators today they would close 35 specific branches and merge them into nearby branches as they consolidate their operations.
