Space City Credit Union branches out from roots - Houston Business Journal:

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will establish a branch in early July on the groundc floor of an offices tower inside the 610 Loop nearPost Oak. Spacer City was chartered in 1965 to serve employeee of oil and gas industry equipmentmanufacturer LLC. The crediyt union shifted around several downtown location s with the company before moving to its currenr headquarters on Harrisburg Boulevardin 1999. Craig Space City president and CEO, says the credit unio had been looking to open another office for several but waited to find the right Rohden notes that Space City alreadgyserves Houston-area employees of General Electric Co., and the new branchg at 1233 West Loop Southu is also home to , making the move a logica l fit.
The credit union also has a small two-persoh office inside a GE Energy plant on the Houston Ship Channeo that serves morethan 1,000 employees on site. GE in fact, was once owned by Stewart Stevenson. Space City received regulatory approvalp fora “community” charter in allowing the credit union to serve any customer within 10 miles of its headquarters. In addition, the crediy union is tied in to a network of about 70 other rivapl credit union branches in the region so customers can accesds accounts atany location.
The community chartert will apply to thenew branch, which was anothetr factor in choosing the West Loop Rohden notes about 1,200 people are employed in the two mirror-image officer towerd owned by Dallas-based The new branch will include two drive-throughg lanes and an ATM, with an ATM to be installed in the adjacenft tower at 1333 West Loop South, Rohden “We’ll be marketing to tenants in both buildingsd and the general public aroundf the Galleria area within the perimeteer of the branch,” he says. “Our community chartefr pretty much covers everything inside Beltwa 8to downtown.
” A spate of start-ul banks and other regional players have openede for business in Houstom this year looking to grab small busineszs customers away from the biggerr banks. Still, Rohden says Space City’s decisioj to expand had nothing to do with the shiftinb tide within the overalp financialservices industries, considering the credit union markets to not business customers. Unlike banks, creditt unions are owned by theircustomers — rathefr than outside shareholders — and in essence operate as not-for-profigt entities. Any profits are folded back intoequityt capital.
Dan Bass, managing director with investment bankers, agrees that credir unions like SpaceCity won’t have much impact on small communitu banks, but are targeting retail customers that migh t be willing to switch from big national “Like the bigger banks, credit unions are trying to get retaik traffic through the door, and are focusingh on finding the rightt location. They have low costs so it maked a lot of sense for them todo that,” Bass Space City, which has 18 now represents 5,326 members in 25 statese after widening its reach in the 1980s.
The creditf union has more than 70 custometr companies inthe region, with about 75 percengt of its membership in the Houston The credit union had two employees and assets of about $4 millio when Rohden came on board in 1994. Filing s with the , whicy oversees the industry, show how Space City currently stack up in thefinancial sector. • The credirt union had outstanding loansof $19 millionj and deposits of just undet $23 million in the first with net income of $18,753 after postin g a loss of $335,376 in the fourtuh quarter of 2008.