Great Southern branches west

Great Southern Bank will have a new branch at 2735 W. Chestnut Expwy., according to Great Southern President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Turner. The new branch, which has an estimated construction cost of $240,000, will be just east of the old PFI building at 2743 W. Chestnut Expwy., and in a separate project, Great Southern is renovating the former PFI property to use as storage.

Turner said the new branch on West Chestnut Expressway is designed to better serve existing Great Southern customers and to attract new ones.

"We think that's an area of town that's underserved. We have a couple of north-side branches right now that are extremely busy, and we think we need another north-side branch that's a little bit farther west," he said.

The full-service branch will initially have six employees both full- and part-time, according to Barby Pohl, vice president of Great Southern's branch administration.

Great Southern opened its 28th branch location Aug. 29 at 1615 W. Sunshine on the south side of the Elfindale Center. James Pipkin Jr. is the manager of the Elfindale branch, but Pohl said a branch manager for the new location on West Chestnut Expressway has not yet been selected.

Of the Elfindale branch, Turner said, "That's, again, kind of the west part of town where we didn't think we had the branch coverage we needed."

Despite the fact that Great Southern's recent attempt to acquire Springfield-based Guaranty Federal Bank fell through, Turner said Great Southern is still moving forward.

"We'd like to continue to grow, as we have in the past, both our asset size and our earnings," he added.

With regard to the economy, Turner said, interest rates of late have been very interesting.

"We've seen 350 basis points of interest rate cuts this year. We're fortunate here in Springfield, though, that our economy does not seem to have the highs and the lows that the economies have along the coasts the East Coast and the West Coast," he said. "Our loan demand seems to be pretty strong, our loan customers seem to be in pretty good shape and able to pay. Our economy, I think, is still pretty strong."

All of Great Southern's branches are in southwest Missouri, but they are located as far east as Thayer, as far west as Joplin and as far north as Osage Beach. Turner said southwest Missouri will remain Great Southern's target market, but the bank "might be interested at some point in branching into Kansas City."

In addition to branch growth, Great Southern also has added several automated teller machines to its network.

Turner said Great Southern has close to 130 ATMs, and added that people are extremely comfortable using them these days.

The bank also offers online banking and telephone banking for its customers.

The general contractor for the new branch is Southwest Builders Inc., and Geoffrey Butler of Butler, Rosenbury & Partners is the architect.

According to Jeff Julich, president of Southwest Builders Inc., the structure is 2,880 square feet in size it has a 1,440-square-foot drive-through canopy and the remaining 1,440 square feet is the actual building.

The exterior of the building will be brick and exterior insulation finish system.

The new branch should be completed by mid-January, Julich said.

Great Southern Bank, which has its headquarters in Springfield, is a subsidiary of its holding company, Great Southern Bancorp Inc. It is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol GSBC.