BMO Harris Bank on Monday opened a temporary branch in the Sherman Park neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side.
The branch, located adjacent to the regular branch at the same address, is 1,800 square feet, with a teller window and regular services. It is staffed by a manager, a banker and three tellers.
“It was existing space that was there,” said Jud Snyder, president of BMO Harris Equipment Finance and senior executive for southeast Wisconsin. “At one point years ago, it was a remote drive-up (near) the building, but it hadn’t been used in years.”
The temporary location stands in place of the Canada-based bank’s regular 20,000-square-foot branch at 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave., which was badly damaged during unrest in the area on Aug. 13. BMO also repaired one of its drive-up ATMs at the site, which is now operational.
Several buildings housing eight businesses were damaged in fires set during the violent unrest in Sherman Park, after 23-year-old Sylville K. Smith, an armed African-American suspect stopped by the Milwaukee Police Department for a suspicious vehicle check, was shot and killed by a 24-year-old African-American police officer following a foot chase in the 3200 block of North 44th Street.
Seeing the level of damage the regular branch sustained, and considering it could not access the site for some time because it was a crime scene, BMO Harris moved quickly to remodel the vacant building housing the temporary branch, Snyder said. BMO still does not have a damage assessment or plan for reopening the regular branch.
“We knew when we looked at it, we wouldn’t be able to open as quickly as we wanted for our customers,” Snyder said. “The city was fantastic working with us through this process.”
Immediately following the unrest, the employees working at the Sherman Park branch were reassigned to a branch a couple of miles away on North Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
