"The whole reason for [the eight-acre revitalization project] is that we wanted to engage the community; it was a big, big focus for us," Blue FCU CFO Kim Alexander said. "This site has just been an eye sore with abandoned buildings. We really wanted to revitalize that part of town and have a draw to bring the community into our area to have lunch, coffee or take the kids out and play in the [park] plazas."

The community center, which will be connected to the corporate headquarters, will house a gym and two employee training facilities. With a full-size kitchen, the community center can double as a banquet room for weddings, family reunions and other public gatherings. The park plazas can also be used for community events.

A few hundred yards from the corporate headquarters and community center, a 14,500-square-foot building will be constructed to house Blue FCU's 2,500-square-foot branch. The additional 12,000 square feet will available for new retail stores.

The former shopping center's buildings will be razed in May and construction of the new building is expected to begin in June. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2020.

Blue FCU's new headquarters will house about 170 staff members, and will have the capacity to accommodate more than 400 employees as the credit union grows.

"We have support staff in six facilities across two states [Wyoming and Colorado]," Alexander said. "I would say we officially don't have a headquarters right now, so this would be the first true headquarters for Blue Federal Credit Union."

The credit union's merger with Community Financial Credit Union in Broomfield, Colo., in April 2016 increased its assets by nearly $200 million. Blue FCU currently operates eight branches in Colorado and six branches in Wyoming.

To meet its current and future growth expectations, CCCU decided to design its new corporate headquarters as a mixed-use facility from a branch standpoint rather than a corporate/operations standpoint, John Lewis, CCCU's vice president of IT and facilities, pointed out.

"We know that the branches were supposed to be gone 10 years ago, but they're not," he said. "However, we also know that at some point in time, the branches are no longer going to be a destination, so we wanted to have other things in proximity that would keep bringing people into the building."

Since the headquarters will be located in a high-traffic commercial area along Blairs-Ferry Road in Iowa's second largest city, the credit union is hoping the building's 12,000 square feet of new retail space will attract entrepreneurs looking for an opportunity to open a café or a full-service restaurant.

Lewis credits CCCU President/CEO Stefanie Rupert for leading the executive team to think ahead about the headquarters project.

"Knowing that this building is going to be around for at least 20 years, she has been forward-thinking about it," Lewis said. "She's been leading us to think a little bit out of our comfort zone."

For example, a gender-inclusive bathroom with a common area for washing hands and private floor-to-ceiling stalls will be installed on the first floor.

"This is not something that has been done a lot in the Cedar Rapids area, but Stefanie was very adamant that, again, since this building is going be around for 20 years, she knows that gender definitions, and how people self-define themselves is changing," Lewis explained. The building's second and third floors will have traditional bathrooms.

The 12,600-square-foot branch will be on the first floor with a full staff of loan officers, member service consultants, tellers, investment and trade partners, and branch managers.

Although the main branch is currently designed to handle a high level of member traffic, CCCU anticipates it will decline over time as mobile and online banking increasingly become the dominant channels for member interactions.

"We're building the branch for what we need today, but we know full well that we're going to need to renovate the branch sooner rather than later," Lewis said. "That's why we're installing modular walls as opposed to regular traditional interior walls in the branch. They're almost like cubicle walls in that they can be reconfigured and moved so you can get the benefits of new office design layout without having to tear everything out."

Though the new branch will feature interactive technologies for members who want to complete the "get-in/get-out" transactions, delivering personalized service will obviously continue as the credit union's primary focus.

"We're not entirely relying on technologies because if people are coming to our branches, we know it's because they want to talk to a person, not a machine," Lewis said.

The headquarters' second floor will house CCCU's operations, such as underwriting, deposits and the call center. The third floor will be occupied by executive offices, and the human resources, IT and marketing departments.

In addition to the community center on the first floor, the rooftop patio will be open for public events.

About 150 employees are expected to move into their new headquarters when completed by the second quarter of 2020. As more employees are hired to support the credit union's projected growth in the years to come, the building will be able to accommodate more than 330 staff members.

The price tag for the new CCCU headquarters, which includes the land, construction of the building and interior design work, is about $25 million.

"We created a [real estate development] CUSO that will own and operate the building because we are not the sole owners," Lewis said. "We actually have a couple of partners in the building, including the developer who owns the land, which allows us to spread the capital spend out a little bit more."

To finance the construction, the credit union will make a loan to the CUSO, which will lease the building back to the credit union.

"We decided that since we are a credit union, did it necessarily mean that we want to own real estate and corporate buildings, or did it make more sense to essentially lease it from the CUSO?" Lewis explained. "We felt the CUSO gave us more flexibility down the road should we desire to offer investment opportunities for other credit unions and other investors."

To expand into other markets, CCCU anticipates the need to build other facilities – though not on the scale of its headquarters building – which may also be financed through the CUSO.

"We're using the corporate headquarters as a kind of pilot for this CUSO to see what works well and what doesn't work well," he said.