MIDFLORIDA Credit Union’s new south Fort Myers branch includes drive-thru and indoor banking services. The credit union purchased the property in 2019 and redeveloped the former Applebee’s restaurant site.
David Dorsey
MIDFLORIDA Credit Union spent more than six years planning a new location near the center of Lee County, aiming to bridge a gap between its branches in the Naples area and Cape Coral.
On June 15, the doors opened for a soft launch of the credit union’s 65th branch in Florida. It is located at the southwest corner of Cypress Lake Drive and U.S. 41, at 13550 S. Tamiami Trail. The intersection has an average daily traffic count of more than 120,000 vehicles, making it one of the busiest in Lee County.
A grand opening celebration is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 10.
“We feel like it’s a combination of spending marketing dollars and branch dollars when you can find a premier corner,” said Vanessa Hernandez, chief of retail for MIDFLORIDA Credit Union. “It tells customers that we’re going to be in a community for the long haul — buying a prime corner and building a beautiful facility that will be there for generations to come.”
MIDFLORIDA purchased the property for $5 million in November 2019 while it was still occupied by an Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill + Bar. The restaurant closed in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic intensified and never reopened. The vacant building remained on the site until 2023, when it was demolished to make way for the multimillion-dollar credit union branch, which includes drive-thru and indoor banking services.
The credit union waited a few additional weeks to open after construction finished earlier this year while focusing on other work behind the scenes, Hernandez said.
“We’ve been around since 1954 in Central Florida,” said Hernandez, who has worked for the credit union for 24 years and is based in her hometown of Wauchula. The credit union originated in Lakeland, where the Polk County superintendent enlisted high school history teacher Rebecca Keith to manage what was then known as Polk County Teachers Credit Union. It launched with 10 charter members and grew to 274 members with about $7,000 in deposits by the end of its first year.
“Literally the first treasurer kept the original deposits of the credit union in a shoebox under her bed,” Hernandez said of what has become a Florida banking legend. “True story. Over the years, the credit union ended up buying her house, because so many customers had come there looking to be served. We actually still have that location today. In the bones of the building was the original location.”
Unlike traditional banks, credit unions are nonprofit, member-owned financial cooperatives in which account holders are part owners. While banks are insured by the FDIC, or Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., credit unions, such as MIDFLORIDA, are regulated by the NCUA, or National Credit Union Administration.
MIDFLORIDA Credit Union opened its new south Fort Myers branch in June, helping bridge the gap between its locations in Naples and Cape Coral. The approximately 5,200-square-foot building employs eight team members.
David Dorsey
“We don’t have a huge profit motive, because we don’t have to make shareholders happy with a return on their investment,” Hernandez said. “How do we reinvest that money and where does that go? We put that into having better loan rates and better deposit rates.”
Today, the credit union’s 65 branches account for just under $10 billion in assets, she said.
“We have expanded throughout the years through organic opportunities, just like the Fort Myers branch,” Hernandez said. “We also have done a number of mergers, where we have merged with other credit unions so we can add service to their members.”
In March, MIDFLORIDA purchased Prime Meridian Bank in Tallahassee and converted it to the new brand in April, a process that contributed to the credit union delaying the opening of the new south Fort Myers branch.
In November 2019, MIDFLORIDA purchased Community Bank & Trust of Florida in Ocala, further expanding its reach.
That same month, just as MIDFLORIDA bought the site of the new south Fort Myers branch, it also acquired the branches of First American Bank at 3360 Pine Ridge Road in Collier County and 804 Cape Coral Parkway E. in Cape Coral. Those transactions brought the company into Southwest Florida for the first time.
The south Fort Myers branch opens with eight employees, led by Branch Manager Maria Gloria, a Florida State University graduate and Florida native.
The building is about 5,200 square feet, larger than the Cape Coral branch’s 3,600 square feet.
A second Cape Coral branch is planned on Pine Island Road on an outparcel in front of a new Home Depot being built adjacent to Sam’s Club. The timeline for completion remains uncertain.
“MIDFLORIDA is deeply committed to offering the best of both worlds in banking when it comes to having great technology and also having face-to-face service,” Hernandez said. “We are heavily investing in the Gulf Coast area and look forward to continuing to add more locations to better serve Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties.”
Hernandez explained the nearly seven-year gap between purchasing the land and opening the new Fort Myers branch.
“We try to build two new branches per year and one replacement branch,” Hernandez said. “We’re very financially healthy. When we open a new branch, it takes several years for it to become profitable. Sometimes the opportunity for property comes about before we’re ready to build. We go ahead and buy the property. We just had more projects ahead of that one, and we had to prioritize accordingly.
“We knew we needed to connect the dots in Fort Myers, and that opportunity came about.”