Bank of America opens new Chesterfield branch, nears completion on Willow Lawn outpost

Bank of America’s new Willow Lawn branch is nearing completion.

Bank of America just did something it hasn’t done in Richmond for a while: open a new-construction branch.

Its from-scratch location at 12200 Bridgewood Crossing Drive in Midlothian opened for business in recent weeks near the intersection of Hull Street and Bridgewood roads.

And the banking giant, which controls by far the largest share of deposits in the region, isn’t done building.

Its ground-up branch at 5000 W. Broad St. is set to open later this month across from Willow Lawn.

The bank also said it plans to spend $20 million in the next two years to update its existing local branch network, including the possibility of building new locations to replace aging outposts nearby.

That’s after spending $20 million over the past five years updating the interiors of its other 15 branches in the region.

The two new locations replace existing nearby BofA branches. The new Bridgewood branch replaces its now-closed Brandermill location at 13500 Harbour Pointe Parkway, and the new Willow Lawn location will replace the Malvern branch at 4101 W. Broad St.

The moves come as the bank in recent years has been part of the industrywide trend of branch consolidation due mainly to the adoption of online banking services. BofA has 17 branches across the region, down from 24 a decade ago. But in that span its local deposits have doubled from $12.5 billion in 2014 to more than $24 billion as of last summer. That gives the bank control of around 42% of all deposits in the competitive Richmond metro market. Its nearest rivals are Truist and Wells Fargo at $8.4 billion and $8 billion, respectively.

Victor Branch

Victor Branch, BofA’s Richmond market president, said that while technology has helped reduce banks’ physical footprints, branches are not obsolete.

“Our clients are embracing the technology and we’re doing it with a smaller footprint in brick-and-mortar, but we’re finding clients are using the brick-and-mortar to do their more complex banking needs,” Branch said.

Candace Haggerty, local head of consumer banking operations, said those trends also have helped shape how BofA designs its branches. In newer branches and in those that have been renovated, the traditional out-front teller lines have been moved elsewhere or replaced by private meeting rooms.

Candace Haggerty

“Our financial centers are where we give guidance on lending or smallbusiness needs or through Merrill Lynch,” Haggerty said. “People don’t want to spend a lot of time doing the everyday transactions in branches that they can do on their phones. That’s really the change we’re making, and it’s working for us.”

Another trend is that traditional drive-thru teller lines are no longer as vital as more customers complete more transactions via ATMs. New locations are being built without drive-thru tellers but do have drive-up ATMs.

Despite the smaller footprint locally, BofA remains a major employer in the region with about 2,000 employees in the market, Branch said. About 1,500 of those work at the bank’s technology and operations center on Villa Park Drive in Henrico County. The rest work either in branches or in the Bank of America Center at 1111 E. Main St. downtown.

Branch said the bank recently added to its headcount in that building when it relocated its local Merrill Lynch team from the nearby Truist Center.

BofA leases the new Bridgewood property from local developer Rebkee. It leases the Broad Street branch property from Miami-based Frontier Development.

The upgrades to the existing Richmond branches were part of a similar effort at its 3,700 branches nationwide, the bank said. It also plans to build 165 new locations nationally in the next couple of years.