New York-based JP Morgan Chase & Co. says it plans to open a new bank branch in the Indian Trail Road neighborhood on Spokane's North Side, and it's looking for other potential sites in the Spokane area as part of its Pacific Northwest growth plan.

The Indian Trail project is planned on a 1-acre site Chase Bank has bought just north of the Sundance Plaza shopping center, says Steve Westenskow, a Chase Bank vice president with responsibilities over 170 bank branches in Eastern Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada.

A building permit application on file with the city lists the project's value at $2.2 million.

Construction is to start in June, Westenskow says, adding, "We plan to have it open in November."

The Indian Trail branch will be one of 12 new branches that Chase Bank plans to open this year in Washington state, says Darcy Donohoe-Wilmot, a Seattle-based spokeswoman for the bank. Chase Bank hopes to add 12 to 15 more branches statewide next year as well, she says.

"Chase Bank has identified Washington and Oregon as a priority growth market," Donohoe-Wilmot says.

Westenskow says he views the Spokane region as a long-term growth area, and he's looking for additional locations to open branches here.

"I'm very pleased with what we're doing here in Spokane, and we see more opportunity to do even more," he says. "I spend quite an amount of my time looking for new sites and working with our in-house real estate staff."

Chase Bank will hire up to nine people to staff the Indian Trail branch, he says.

The Spokane Valley office of Colorado-based development consultant CLC Associates Inc. designed the project. A contractor hasn't been selected yet to build the branch.

The freestanding bank building will have 4,200 square feet of floor space, four drive-through lanes, and a walk-up automated teller machine, he says. Access to the bank branch will be via Indian Trail on the east side of the property, Barnes Road on its south side, and Coursier Lane on its west side.

Chase Bank operates 19 branches in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, having acquired in September 2008 many assets of the failed Seattle-based Washington Mutual Bank, including 300 former WaMu branches in the Northwest.

WaMu last opened a Spokane-area branch 10 years ago, Westenskow says.