Richland-based Gesa Credit Union has opened a Spokane Valley branch in the Banner Center retail plaza at 509 N. Sullivan.

The branch occupies the old 2,200-square-foot site of a Banner Bank branch, which closed after the Walla Walla-based bank merged with Spokane-based AmericanWest Bank and consolidated operations in 2015.

The Valley branch is Gesa Credit Union’s second retail branch in the Spokane area. The first is located at 9625 N. Newport Highway, on the North Side.

The Valley branch will have six employees when fully staffed, including a manager, tellers, and loan officers, says Brian Griffith, a spokesman for the credit union.

The new branch also has a drive-up teller window and an ATM, Griffith says.

“The space was already set up to be a branch for financial services,” he says. “We were able to move in quickly without having to do a significant remodel.”

As reported earlier in the Journal, Gesa Credit Union also recently opened a mortgage center downtown, where it occupies 6,600 square feet of leased space in the former Bank of Whitman building, at 618 W. Riverside.

“We’ve just really been excited about joining the Spokane community,” Griffith says. “Members already live there, and now they have another physical location they can visit as well.”

Members of the General Electric Supervisors Association founded Gesa Credit Union in the Tri-Cities in 1953.

Today, the credit union’s membership is open to anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school in Washington state, as well as members’ close relatives.

Gesa Credit Union has 18 branches. As of March 31, the credit union had 149,300 members and total assets of $1.83 billion.