LUMBERTON — The State Employees Credit Union will moved its West Fifth Street branch to a site on N.C. 711 and Nigel Road, near Pinecrest Country Club..
The West Fifth Street branch at the Food Lion shopping center was closed for four months after Hurricane Matthew. The new location will be close to the Department of Social Services and the Public Schools of Robeson County offices and beside the East Carolina University dental clinic.
SECU has purchased six acres form the county and plans an 8,500-square-foot building, considerably larger than its current building. The new branch is part of SECU’s strategy to own its factilities.
Headquartered in Raleigh, SECU provides consumer banking services to state, municipal and county employees. It is a nonprofit member-owned cooperative with $35.9 billion in assets and $20 billion in loans to its members on the books.
“We believe the new branch will better serve our customers,” said Sandra Jones, who works in SECU’s Member Communications Department. “This is a great business location with a number of state agencies at the site.”
The relocated branch will break ground sometime in late summer and will be open for business within nine months, Jones said. SECU’s second Lumberton office is on Fayetteville Road, and it has an office in Pembroke near UNC Pembroke. They were untouched by flooding.
West Fifth Street was hit hard by flooding from Hurricane Matthew as water blasted through the Jacob Swamp Dike at the VFW Road where the effects of 4 feet of water, as well as mud and sand are still evident. Employees from the branch moved to the Fayetteville Road site to serve Lumberton.
