OakStar ready to build permanent banking center

The nationally chartered startup bank will break ground at 10 a.m. Dec. 21 at 1020 E. Battlefield Road.

Plans call for a 28,000-square-foot building that would house banking operations and training centers on its first and second floors. Its third floor would remain unfinished for future expansion.

The project’s cost is estimated between $5 million and $6 million. Completion is slated for December 2007.

Baron Design and Associates is the architect, and Killian Construction is the general contractor.

OakStar, a business-oriented bank, opened near the end of 2005 with $10 million in capital, put up by 40 investors. The bank employs 21 people and has been temporarily located in a modular building at the Battlefield Road location.