Arvest Bank is scheduled to break ground June 6 on a new bank at 3184 E. Sunshine St., the former location of Carson’s Nursery. The branch would be the company’s second in Springfield to be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards and the third companywide.
Arvest operates a LEED-Gold certified branch at the intersection of Chestnut Expressway and National Avenue, completed in July, as well as a LEED-Gold certified branch in Fayetteville, Ark., said Michael Gandy, marketing officer for Arvest Bank in Springfield, noting the newest branch would not attempt to meet the LEED-Gold standard.
“We’re just shooting for LEED so we can gauge the difference in savings and how it impacts the environment,” Gandy said.
The 3,953-square-foot branch on nearly two acres is scheduled for completion by early 2012. It will satisfy U.S. Green Building Council guidelines by incorporating building elements such as a recycling center, a bioswale – which collects rainwater for filtration – and low volatile organic compound building materials, according to an Arvest news release.
“Arvest has made a real commitment to building energy efficient branches in the last 10 years,” Rodney Shepard, president of Arvest Springfield, said in the release. “We are pleased to be working on our second such branch in Springfield which will both provide more convenience for Arvest customers and reduce our impact on the environment.”
Arvest’s architecture department is working with Rogers, Ark.-based Hight-Jackson Associates PA, the external architectural firm, on the project. The general contractor for the facility is Morelock-Ross Builders Inc., and Fort, Smith, Ark.-based Morrison Shipley has been hired as civil consultant.
The new branch will mark the eighth full-service location in the area. There are currently three in Springfield, two in Branson, one in Nixa and one in Hollister. In January, Arvest purchased six acres at the northeast corner of Fremont Avenue and Republic Road, where the company plans to build a full-service branch.
The bank operates more than 230 branches in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma.[[In-content Ad]]
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