Numerica Credit Union plans to open two new branches by the end of next year, including one this year in the two-story former First National Bank Building downtown, says Kelli Hawkins, spokeswoman for the credit union.

Meanwhile, Numerica has also purchased property on Sprague Avenue it's considering for further development in three years, Hawkins says.

Numerica signed the lease to occupy about 3,000 square feet of ground-level space at 502 W. Riverside earlier this month and expects to begin renovating that space in June. Hawkins says the branch likely will be open to the public by the fall, and the building will be renamed the Numerica Building.

"With Numerica moving into there, we think the building will be stable by the end of June or July, and we're negotiating with several other tenants to take additional space," says Chris Batten, RenCorpRealty LLC principal and designated broker.

Bob Cooke, of R.H. Cooke & Associates Inc., of Spokane, represented Numerica in the transaction, and Batten represented the lessor.

Spokane-based Sure Would LLC and 1953 Box LLC purchased the two buildings formerly known as the Sherwood Mall on Feb. 11, Batten says.

1953 Box, owned by Bobby Brett and the Chris Batten Group, owns the 24,000-square-foot, two-story former First National Bank Building. Batten says that if current lease negotiations are successful, about 5,000 square feet will remain available.

Hawkins says the downtown branch is currently in the design phase, and an estimate of total construction costs hasn't been determined.

The eight-story building next door, formerly the Kirtland Cutter Building, has about 60,000 square feet of floor space, Batten says. That building also will receive significant renovations over the next few months, he says.

Sterling Financial occupied both buildings most recently before vacating them in August, leaving them mostly empty, Batten says.

"All of a sudden that corner will be coming back to life," Batten says.

The Numerica branch downtown will be geared toward business banking and will have a full-service ATM, Hawkins says.

Although exact employment numbers for the downtown Numerica location are still unclear, Hawkins says that branch likely will have two or three tellers, and one or two business service officers who handle business accounts. She says most of the credit union's business service officers currently are based at its headquarters at 14610 E. Sprague in the Valley and travel out to its branches. Stationing business service personnel at its downtown location "will be unique to that branch," Hawkins says.

The branch also will have a number of "hoteling" stations, which are workspaces purposefully left empty, enabling some of its staff to work at the downtown location even if they aren't based there, Hawkins says. The stations have all the technological capabilities of someone with a full office in a branch, she says.

Numerica also purchased a 1.25 acre piece of land in Richland Wash., in November 2012 for about $762,000, she says. The credit union plans to build a roughly 3,000-square-foot branch located on Duportail Street that is slated to open next year. Hawkins says construction on that property is expected to start this fall. A contractor has not been chosen, she says.

In Spokane Valley, the credit union bought slightly more than an acre of land last fall on the east 4900 block of Sprague for about $1.1 million.

"That property was purchased because it was a good location, and it was a great opportunity to make that purchase," Hawkins says.

Hawkins says the credit union is considering building a branch there, but says that property likely won't be developed for several years.

Numerica currently has more than 90,000 members throughout the Inland Northwest, with 16 branches, not including its headquarters building on Sprague Avenue.