Telco Credit Union, of Spokane, has bought 1 1/2 acres of bare land on Spokanes North Side and plans to construct a building there to house a full-service branch and its headquarters.


The recently purchased land is located at 9707 N. Nevada, along the west side of Nevada Street and east ofor behindthe Northpointe Plaza Shopping Center.


Margaret Burkholz, CEO of Telco Credit Union, says ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, is designing the structure. The credit union hopes to start construction of the new building this summer and be able to move into the new structure during the first quarter of 2005.


The new North Side branch will be its second location. Its only branch currently is located at 428 E. Third, just east of downtown Spokane.


This is a big step for us, Burkholz says. It allows us to take on new membership as well as better serve the members we have.


Telco plans to hire six people to staff the new branch, which would give it a total of 19 employees.


Some of the credit unions management and current staff will move to the new building, but the operation on Third Avenue will remain a full-service branch.


Burkholz says Telco hasnt decided how big the new building will be, and thus doesnt have a cost estimate for it.


She says, however, that the credit union building likely will be two stories tall and will be larger than its current, single-story structure.


Telco has studied the possibility of developing a second branch for several years.


It decided to build on the North Side because a strong concentration of its customers live in that part of the metropolitan area, Burkholz says.


She says a recent analysis it conducted showed that about 30 percent of the credit unions 5,200 account holders live in the general vicinity of the North Side branch site.


Telco posted 2003 net income of about $280,000, up from net income of about $265,000 the year earlier.


As of Jan. 31, the credit union had total assets of $34 million, total deposits of $28.5 million, and total loans of $21.3 million.


Dan Cantu, of Cantu Commercial Properties LLC, handled the sale of the site of the planned new building.