The $1.5 billion United Federal Credit Union in St. Joseph, Mich., said it is launching a multi-phase building project to support its planned growth over the next five years.

The first phase includes construction of a new, 20,000-square-foot operations center in Niles, Mich.

“While our corporate headquarters will remain in St. Joseph, our new operations center and the follow-on building projects that we are planning throughout Berrien County will help us expand our capabilities,” said UFCU President/CEO Gary Easterling. “Having several sizable work locations throughout the county will also help us attract talented employees that live throughout the Michiana area.”

Easterling said that after reviewing more than 40 development proposals, it became apparent that having several modular campuses – rather than a single, large headquarters building – was the best approach because it would enable the cooperative to remain flexible and adapt to changing market conditions.

Construction of the operations center will begin in December with an anticipated completion date of December 2014. 

“In addition to our new operations center, we'll continue to invest in southwest Michigan, even as we grow throughout the communities we serve across the U.S.,” said Easterling. “For example, United just opened a new, state-of-the-art employee training center here in St. Joseph.  We repurposed an unused, former branch location and invested $750,000 to create the newly renovated educational facility, which held its first training class on Sept. 9.”

Easterling also noted that UFCU's existing corporate headquarters and branch facility will benefit from renovation investments of more than $3 million planned for 2014.

The existing branch will be replaced by a new building on the same property and the corporate headquarters will be expanded and improved to house UFCU's growing workforce.

UFCU said it now serves more than 121,000 members through 23 branches in Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.