{"id":23403,"date":"2025-12-01T12:59:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=23403"},"modified":"2025-12-01T12:59:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:59:50","slug":"the-risks-and-rewards-of-bank-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=23403","title":{"rendered":"The risks and rewards of bank construction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For any bank that builds a new branch or headquarters, the construction isn’t just a physical undertaking. It’s also a matter of public relations.<\/p>\n

Building a structure on time and on budget, experts say, communicates to the public that a bank is competent, organized and confident in its future. On the other hand, construction problems or delays can badly damage a lender’s image. <\/p>\n

Huw Roberts is the CEO of PMWEB, a software company that helps banks and other businesses manage their construction projects. In his view, the practical benefits of a new building \u2014 expanding into a new market, creating a more modern work environment, etc. \u2014 are only half the story.<\/p>\n

“It also has a value in what it signals to the world, to the market, to your customers, to your competitors,” Roberts said. “These flagship buildings or redevelopments or large-scale projects can be a brand statement.”<\/p>\n

That statement can be either positive or negative. Get it right, and the bank looks capable of handling the finances of a complex, long-term project. Get it wrong, and the risks are just as great.<\/p>\n

“For a bank, there’s an expectation that they’re on top of it,” Roberts said. “If a bank does something that makes them lose money, then you don’t trust that bank as much.”<\/p>\n

Monoliths in Manhattan<\/h2>\n

One recent example is from one of PMWEB’s clients: JPMorganChase<\/ps-link> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span>. In 2022, America’s largest bank announced that it was building a new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, to be completed by the end of 2025. Sure enough, the 60-story skyscraper had its grand opening last month.<\/p>\n

“They’ve hit a home run,” Roberts said of the project, which was managed using PMWEB’s software. “They absolutely did a great job and delivered a great building.”<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n
The completed JPMorganChase headquarters in August 2025.<\/figcaption>

Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

The completion of the structure sends multiple messages to the public, including about JPMorgan’s<\/ps-link> financial strength, its ambitious view of its future and its commitment to New York City as its home base.<\/p>\n

But another signal is to its employees. Earlier this year, JPMorgan<\/ps-link> called virtually all of its workers back to the office<\/u><\/ps-link> five days a week. For those workers whose offices are in the headquarters, the new building appears to offer a deal: They must show up to work, but their work environment will be extraordinary. According to the bank, the all-electric tower features “exceptional indoor air quality,” expansive green spaces and 30% more daylight than a typical office building.<\/p>\n

“By creating world-class environments where our employees can thrive, we are strengthening our ability to serve our clients and communities \u2014 locally and globally \u2014 for generations to come,” CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement<\/u><\/a><\/ps-link> announcing the grand opening.<\/p>\n

In Roberts’ view, the high-tech new office signals that the bank is “looking to the future” and equipping itself for it. But the construction process was not without risk: For one thing, the skyscraper’s foundation had to be built directly on top of a subway station and other utility infrastructure, right in the middle of a highly busy neighborhood.<\/p>\n

“They had to be very creative in terms of how the structure got down through them into the ground,” Roberts said. “The risk was, with that much work, that many people working on it, that high visibility \u2026 getting it wrong would have gotten a lot of attention.”<\/p>\n

And there have been banks that got it wrong. In 1978, a structural engineer who worked on the Citi<\/ps-link> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span>group Center in New York realized, to his horror, that a flaw in the base’s design put the 59-story tower at risk of collapse. <\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n
Citigroup Center was found to be structurally unsound in 1978, but was quickly repaired.<\/figcaption>

Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

After briefly contemplating suicide, the engineer alerted Citi’s<\/ps-link> leaders, and a series of night-time repairs were made to strengthen the building. Ultimately, the bank’s reputation may have been saved by the fact that New York’s newspapers were on strike at the time. No major news outlet covered the story until a New Yorker magazine article<\/u><\/a><\/ps-link> revealed it 17 years later.<\/p>\n

Less dramatically, other projects have struggled to even get to the construction phase. For more than a year, American Express has been stuck in negotiations to become the anchor tenant at 2 World Trade Center, an unfinished skyscraper<\/u><\/a><\/ps-link> in Lower Manhattan. The building’s foundation was finished in 2013, but construction has stalled since then. (Amex only became involved in September 2024<\/u><\/a><\/ps-link>.)<\/p>\n

Smaller banks, higher stakes<\/h2>\n

Community banks, meanwhile, face a different balance of risks and rewards when contemplating new construction. In some ways, they have more to lose if something goes wrong.<\/p>\n

“If that branch renovation takes that branch out of service too long, you’re losing customers, and you may have people decide to get their service somewhere else,” Roberts said. “On a dollar value, it might be a smaller scale, but in terms of everybody associated with that project \u2026 it’s, in a way, an even bigger impact.”<\/p>\n

At the same time, new construction can send an outsized signal about a small bank’s brand.<\/p>\n

Centier Bank, a Merrillville, Indiana-based lender with $9 billion of assets, recently broke ground on a new branch in Westfield. By building yet another office in Indiana \u2014 the bank has more than 60 \u2014 Centier says it’s not only reaffirming its commitment to the state, but re-declaring its independence. <\/p>\n

“We have a ‘Not for Sale’ pledge \u2014 never selling the bank,” Centier’s president, Chris Campbell, told American Banker. “We’re continuing to show that and reinforce that through investment in all these communities.”<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n
Centier Bank’s planned branch in Westfield, Indiana, set to open in summer 2026.<\/figcaption>

Centier Bank<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

But an even stronger message, Campbell said, is sent by what the bank does with such branches long after they’re constructed.<\/p>\n

“All the branches that we’ve built and put up \u2014 they’re still there,” Campbell said. “Our competition will leave communities \u2026 whereas our commitment rides the highs and the lows.”<\/p>\n

Centier says the Westfield office will open in the summer of 2026. Finishing this kind of construction project on time, Roberts said, can make a big impression on the public.<\/p>\n

“By being able to deliver those small projects quickly, efficiently and within your budget \u2026 that enables you to be nimble as a business,” Roberts said. “Time is money, and being able to do it quickly means you can react, you can get your plans in motion, and you can respond to change in your business.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For any bank that builds a new branch or headquarters, the construction isn’t just a physical undertaking. It’s also a matter of public relations. Building a structure on time and on budget, experts say, communicates to the public that a bank is competent, organized and confident in its future. On the other hand, construction problems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[136,1333,1587,730],"class_list":{"0":"post-23403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-banking","8":"tag-bank","9":"tag-construction","10":"tag-rewards","11":"tag-risks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}