Bank of the West plans

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eomaha
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Bank of the West plans

Post by eomaha »

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=46& ... nd=6065212
Omaha will become the companywide headquarters for Bank of the West's home mortgage operation
Omaha will become the home of Bank of the West's four-state Great Plains Division after it acquires Commercial Federal Corp. next month
Bank of the West expects to have more Omaha employees than the 1,000 people who work here for Commercial Federal, although some will lose their jobs and others will be hired for different positions.
"We're really looking to Omaha as the center for back-office growth for the bank," Stafford said, providing support for what will be 680 retail banking offices in 19 state"We have a certain sense of corporate responsibility to Omaha in terms of employment there. Omaha's going to be a major center for us."
Bank of the West plans to fill the current Commercial Federal headquarters building at 132nd and California Streets and a second building under construction nearby. It also will keep an office building at 450 Regency Parkway that Commercial Federal had planned to sell, Stafford said.
"We have a certain sense of corporate responsibility to Omaha in terms of employment there. Omaha's going to be a major center for us."
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TitosBuritoBarn
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Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Excellent! I think big company employee transfers are more fun, but local hires are good too.
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Omaha Cowboy
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Post by Omaha Cowboy »

I was so pleased when I read about this..Looks like Omaha will experience plus job growth due to the 'takeover' of Commercial Federal..

Logical move..Good for the Big O!..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace
Go Cowboys!
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UNOstudent
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Post by UNOstudent »

i heard a rumor at work that bank of the west will continue going east with a potential takeover of another bank in the great lakes area. surely any additional takeovers will help omaha. the signs that say cfb business park are taken down already, itll be a long weekend for me the week of dec 2nd as we change everything.
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TitosBuritoBarn
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Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Will it now be Bank of the West Business Park, or will they go with a different name?
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UNOstudent
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Post by UNOstudent »

i would assume it would be 'bank of the west business park' but im not 100% sure
omahapropertymanager
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Post by omahapropertymanager »

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:Will it now be Bank of the West Business Park, or will they go with a different name?
Someone may be able to update me on this, but on my last trip out west they had taken down the new monument sign along dodge street (in front of the new building that is currently being built). I'm not sure if that is because their is a problem with the sign (ie. faulty construction) or if they are preping it for a new name.
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UNOstudent
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Post by UNOstudent »

as i said above, the signs along dodge st, 132nd, and boys town (138th) are already down. im not sure, but it looks like the facade was just made out of tiles and thats what was taken down.
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OmahaJaysCU
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Post by OmahaJaysCU »

That sign was nice for the month it said com fed. That was kind of a waste of cash to put it up w/ com fed's name to only take it down in a couple months...
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

Are they going to sell that eyesore on Saddlecreek and Dodge?
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UNOstudent
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Post by UNOstudent »

unmc owns the land and its being leased to comfed/botw until they need the land for expansion.....or lake or relocation of saddle creek rd.
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Swift
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Post by Swift »

yeah that thing is a monstrosity. They should tear it down and build a 10 story mixed use highrise.
omahapropertymanager
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Post by omahapropertymanager »

OmahaJaysCU wrote:That sign was nice for the month it said com fed. That was kind of a waste of cash to put it up w/ com fed's name to only take it down in a couple months...
The new sign is up...

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=46&u_sid=2074042
The most substantial sign is up already. Workers put a new "Bank of the West" face on the granite marker at Commercial Federal's business park at 132nd and California Streets, including its corporate symbol, the California bear.

The sign will be covered with a Commercial Federal banner that will be removed this weekend. Sign changes are taking place as planned at most of the 200 Commercial Federal offices in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado.
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

Has anyone else noticed the lack of care the botw has taken when putting up their new "permenant" signs. Most buildings (most of which are white) they are just taking down the old and putting up the new and not even cleanning up all the dirt that has built up behind the old comfed signs. Then on another building they painted just the area where the old sign was, but didn't match the color or even mask off a straight line, they just threw it up.
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OmahaJaysCU
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Post by OmahaJaysCU »

I noticed that too, the location on 86th and dodge/cass ish looks awful.
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nebugeater
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Post by nebugeater »

Kind of matches the service and care they are giving to customers during the transition. There is a whole store here but the short of it is they lost one of my four accounts and took about a week to locate it. The dealing was like I needed to prove to them that they were wrong and it was no big deal. The people here in Omaha were OK to deal with but they were still learning and it got kicked upstairs to Corp out west and when you were actually able to get someone to talk to it was like “so what” and I never once heard back from someone who said I would hear from them. That is just part of it but for the sake of liable I will stop there.

Bottom line is I was a 12 yr Com Fed customer that was willing to give them a chance and then some. Lost my faith and I am in the process of moving everything.
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Post by lonnie »

nebugeater wrote:Kind of matches the service and care they are giving to customers during the transition. There is a whole store here but the short of it is they lost one of my four accounts and took about a week to locate it. The dealing was like I needed to prove to them that they were wrong and it was no big deal. The people here in Omaha were OK to deal with but they were still learning and it got kicked upstairs to Corp out west and when you were actually able to get someone to talk to it was like “so what” and I never once heard back from someone who said I would hear from them. That is just part of it but for the sake of liable I will stop there.

Bottom line is I was a 12 yr Com Fed customer that was willing to give them a chance and then some. Lost my faith and I am in the process of moving everything.
I say, why send profits to Paris, France (parent of 'Bank of the West') when there are several great local banks to deal with.

Tier One is my personal favorite.

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Post by almighty_tuna »

Brad wrote:Has anyone else noticed the lack of care the botw has taken when putting up their new "permenant" signs. Most buildings (most of which are white) they are just taking down the old and putting up the new and not even cleanning up all the dirt that has built up behind the old comfed signs. Then on another building they painted just the area where the old sign was, but didn't match the color or even mask off a straight line, they just threw it up.
The commercial federal at ~136 & Q had a major exterior overhaul done on it. I would venture a guess that location is the base model for the rest in the city. Also, they've been having signage issues as some of the comfed signs weren't actually legal, too big.
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Post by nebport5 »

UNOstudent wrote:as a teller at bank of the west, i am getting so sick of everyone complaining that its owned by the french. i wonder what people think when they drive their honda or toyota to the bank and complain that their bank if foreign owned.

bad example since most american cars are made in canada.
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Big E
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Post by Big E »

Did the US annex Canada recently?

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jsheets
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Post by jsheets »

almighty_tuna wrote:The commercial federal at ~136 & Q had a major exterior overhaul done on it. I would venture a guess that location is the base model for the rest in the city. Also, they've been having signage issues as some of the comfed signs weren't actually legal, too big.
The BOTW at Twin Creek (~38th & Hwy 370) has a great looking exterior for a branch bank. It's out of stone and their sign with the white background actually looks great on the building.

I wish I had a picture to share of it.

Edit:
Here it is, but picture a white background BOTW sign:
Image
almighty_tuna
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Post by almighty_tuna »

Yeah, that's exactly the same scheme as the 136th & Q branch. Its a good looking building for a bank.
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

Well its good to hear they are going to remodel them, I was worried that they were just going to leave them all dirty and nasty, like France -- Just kidding UNOstudent^^^
jsheets
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Post by jsheets »

I really like the designs that were made for these banks from the architects at Holland Basham:
http://www.hba1.com/branch_banks.htm

Here's a few others:
Image
Image
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Zephyr
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Post by Zephyr »

Brad - I have noticed the lack of cleaning around the signs in Denver, too. And I have noticed the lack of service with the turnover.

Bank of the West sucks. I am currently transitioning to a new bank.
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nebugeater
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Post by nebugeater »

The buildings are nice and all and I agree that they are improtant, BUT I choose a back for it's service, support, and product offerings.
jsheets
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Post by jsheets »

nebugeater wrote:The buildings are nice and all and I agree that they are improtant, BUT I choose a back for it's service, support, and product offerings.
I'm a Wells Fargo customer, so don't scold me! I've thought about switching to a local bank, but Wells Fargo has great services and I love being able to avoid ATM fees with Wells Fargo ATM's in the cities I travel to (like Des Moines and Minneapolis).
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nebugeater
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Post by nebugeater »

jsheets wrote:
nebugeater wrote:The buildings are nice and all and I agree that they are improtant, BUT I choose a back for it's service, support, and product offerings.
I'm a Wells Fargo customer, so don't scold me! I've thought about switching to a local bank, but Wells Fargo has great services and I love being able to avoid ATM fees with Wells Fargo ATM's in the cities I travel to (like Des Moines and Minneapolis).
BINGO

No scolding here. After spending a LOT of time looking at my options it came down to First National and Wells Fargo for me. I opened accounts at WF and have been nothing but impressed. Top rate org. First National looked good too but There were a few account options that tiped the scale and I liked the on line bankig better at WF
jsheets
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Post by jsheets »

Coincidentally (or not), the best online banking that I've seen comes from Pinnacle Bank. I liked being able to see all debit card transaction details (like when and where) right away, whereas Wells Fargo just shows "pending" for a day or two without telling you where your charge was done.
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Ingersoll1978
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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

We looked at local banks as well when we moved back from Chicago to Des Moines. We ended up with Wells Fargo. Their service has been just as good as they were at our Chicago bank (formerly Bank One). I also think their telephone customer service is good too. The best thing is the ATM's. They are in most of the markets we go to including MSP, OMA, Phoenix, etc. I wish there was truely a NATIONAL bank...with locations all or most of the top 100 markets. We'd be happy with a bank that had locations in Des Moines, Omaha, Minneapolis, and Chicago...but we haven't found one yet. We would have gone with BOA, but they don't have locations in Omaha (although...I did just find an ATM at Mall of the Bluffs in CB).

One thing if you don't know already know, don't bother with savings accounts (unless you use it as overdraft protection, for which you need probably don't need much in there) at banks. ING offers 4.75 APR for savings accounts for all deposits until April 15th. Even normally, their interest rates are way above what you will get at a regular bank.

http://home.ingdirect.com/
jsheets
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Post by jsheets »

I'm also a big fan of ING Direct. Their service has been great for us. And you can't beat the rate.
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

Bank moves work to West

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1 ... d=10080046
Bank of the West is shifting work done by 22 of its 950 Omaha employees to an office in Monterey Park, Calif., to consolidate its commercial loan servicing functions.
I hope this is not a test or a trend
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

Bank of the West closing three offices

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1 ... d=10301082
The three tellers are "at risk," Dalrymple said, but turnover there over the next three months might create job openings for them.

One of the Omaha offices, at 156th Street and West Center Road, is in a double-wide trailer installed by Commercial Federal Corp. as a temporary location while new offices at 16808 Harrison St. and at 180th Street and West Center were built.

Those two offices have been open for years. The plan to close the 156th Street office was put on hold when Bank of the West acquired Commercial Federal in 2005, Dalrymple said. Accounts, records and safe-deposit boxes from that branch will be shifted to the 168th and Harrison office.

Also closing will be the office in the Hy-Vee supermarket at 8809 West Center Road, shifting its accounts to the office at 8707 West Center. The office within the Hy-Vee at 2107 Taylor Ave. in Norfolk will shift accounts to the main Norfolk office at 602 Norfolk Ave.

Dalrymple said that Bank of the West acquired the Norfolk supermarket office when it purchased another bank and that it hadn't performed as well as hoped.
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nativeomahan
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Post by nativeomahan »

They are (again) proposing to close the branch I use inside Hy-Vee.  I hope it doesn't happen.  I guess I could always move my account to FNB.
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UNOstudent
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Post by UNOstudent »

The Linden Market (132nd and Dodge Hy-Vee) branch will be closing October 30th. The Oakview Hy-Vee branch will be closing in December. Neither are total surprises since there is a branch across 132nd street and Oakview Hy-Vee will be relocating.
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