First Bank of Central Ohio to open branch on crowded Lane Avenue in Upper Arlington

On Apr 1, 2022

Although, according to city officials, seven banks already are in the Lane Avenue Planned Mixed-Use District and five within 300 feet of 1760 W. Lane Ave., that property will be home to another financial institution.

First Bank of Central Ohio plans to open its second location at the site, in a 2,600-square-foot building that formerly housed Cheesecake Boutique.

The former site of Cheesecake Boutique, 1760 W. Lane Ave., will be the home of a First Bank of Central Ohio branch. It will be the second location for the Worthington-based business bank, which was founded in April 2021.

The other branch opened in Worthington last April.

President and CEO John Smiley said the Upper Arlington location won’t be a typical bank branch.

For one thing, he said, it won’t have a drive-thru or ATM. Much of the bank’s business is done electronically, with “little traffic” at physical offices.

“We’re a different bank,” Smiley said. “A lot of our customers have remote (deposit) capture. So a lot of our clients don’t come in to see us.

“We’re primarily a business bank, but we also do consumer lending.”

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., remote deposit capture technology helps streamline and improve the efficiency of processing check deposits by banks. The agency’s website says RDC allows customers to “deposit” checks “electronically at remote locations, usually in the customers’ offices, for virtually instant credit to their account.” Paper checks are digitally scanned and an image of the check is electronically transmitted to the customer’s bank.

In addition to RDC, Smiley emphasized that FBOCO is a business bank that specializes in medical/dental and real-estate lending.

“We cater to the business community but still serve the local community,” he said. “Our hours being 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, we have no need for a drive-thru or an ATM.

“We look at the Upper Arlington location as a great opportunity. As a business bank, the traffic is very low to our location. At the Worthington location, we get less than three customers a day.”

The Upper Arlington Board of Zoning and Planning unanimously approved FBOCO’s plans to redevelop 1760 W. Lane Ave. at its March 23 meeting.

Chad Gibson, community development director for the city, noted the lack of a drive-thru or ATM for the proposed project and said the FBOCO branch would be more like a financial office than a retail bank and would have a “low impact” on parking.

“The building is going to stay as-is, with the exception of a new sign,” he said.

In a statement to the BZAP, Smiley said the city has sought “office users in office space that creates good payroll and jobs for the city” in the past decade. He added that FBOCO has $87 million in total assets and an annual payroll of about $1.7 million for 16 employees.

“We think the staff in that office will start with two to three people and, hopefully, will increase to five to six,” he said. “We plan on hiring people from the Arlington community to man that office.”

Smiley declined to say how much FBOCO is investing in renovating the interior of the space but said it will be updated to serve the needs of the bank and its clients.

“A couple items that really make this space an office space versus a typical bank space is that we will have several desk cubes that are secure with shared glass walls that give the feel of a private bank to take deposits and set up accounts, as well,” he said. “It has a totally different feel than a normal bank space.”