F&M Bank planning Westdale office

Manchester-based F&M Bank is planning to open a southwest Cedar Rapids branch in early November at Westdale.

The bank, with branches in northeast and downtown Cedar Rapids, acquired a building at 2350 Edgewood Road SW in October 2010 that until Friday housed a U.S. Bank office.

'U.S. Bank has a lease in place until Oct. 31,” said Tim German, president of U.S. Bank. 'We've known the day was coming and obviously U.S. Bank did because it built another building out there.”

U.S. Bank opened a new full-service office Monday at 2310 Edgewood Road SW, south of its previous location. The branch offers drive-through lanes, an automated teller machine and other banking services.

'We are excited to serve our customers at this state-of-the-art bank, and supporting the renewed development and revitalization of the Westdale neighborhood,” said Nancy Kasparek, regional president for U.S. Bank, in a news release.

German said F&M Bank plans to remodel portions of the 6,775-square-foot triangle-shaped building, adding some offices on the first floor.

'We've also bought a little land around the building from our neighbor, Dave Drown of Edgewood Partners, so we would have control of it,” German said. 'There's also some work that needed to be done because the new ring road at Westdale changed the entrance to our building.”

German said the new branch will employ five or six people.

'We have those people already onboard, trained and ready to go,” he said. 'We've had a few extra bodies around the Cedar Rapids market for the last few months.

'There will be a mix of new people and others who have been around for awhile. We're excited to have that location, where we serve customers on that side of town a little bit better.”

German said Westdale branch will be open Monday through Saturday. He said it will offer drive-through lanes and a night deposit drop, but no ATM machine because of the large number of units already available in the area.