Great Southern to buid new facility

Great Southern will break ground this month at the corner of Sunshine and Oak Grove for a new 5,500-square-foot facility that will house a branch bank and Great Southern Investments, according to Mike Bennitt, Great Southern Investments president.

Bennitt said he hopes to have the new facility open by January 2001. He declined to disclose the estimated construction cost of the project. The general contractor for the project is Federal Construction and the architect is Butler, Rosenbury & Partners.

Bennitt said Great Southern Bank will close its branch at 2631 E. Sunshine when the new facility opens in early 2001, and its employees will move to the new branch. Bennitt said poor accessibility to the old Sunshine branch led to the decision to close it. Great Southern Investments will move from its offices in the main bank at 1451 E. Battlefield when the new facility opens, for a total of 20 employees there, he said. Bennitt, who is a Certified Financial Planner, said Great Southern has seven financial planners in its investment arm.

"This new facility fits into a larger strategy of Great Southern that started about a year and a half ago, when we moved our travel agency out of the main bank and into its own facility on National, which created a lot of space in the main bank for other departments," Bennitt said. "The most important objective of the strategy is to create more exposure for the other entities of the bank our department has never felt we've had the exposure we've deserved since we started in 1982. We were the first retail investment firm in a bank in Springfield."

The new facility will create more convenience for Great Southern Investment customers, Bennitt added.

"We'll continue to have investment counselors in the main bank but we'll have more and better access to the investment services department. For investment needs, customers will be able to walk straight in instead of having to come up to the third floor," he said.

Joe Turner, Great Southern's president and chief executive officer, agreed. "We think that's a better location for our customers to get in and out of, whether they're bank customers or investment customers."

Turner said the old Sunshine branch, which is housed in a leased building, may be used as a training facility until the lease is up.

"We trade stocks just like anyone else, but that's not our No. 1 issue here. Our No. 1 issue here is using financial products like variable annuities and mutual funds. We also work with tax credit programs and do a lot of tax-free investments," Bennitt said.