Atlanta Postal CU Launches Consumer-Facing Credit Union for Growth Opportunities

The $2.3 billion Atlanta Postal Credit Union is investing $21 million over the next 15 years to launch its first consumer-facing credit union under a new name and new brand that will stay close to its 95-year roots.

The new brand name, Center Parc Credit Union, a division of APCU, was recently affixed atop a legendary stadium in Atlanta that hosted the 1996 Olympic Games and was later redesigned as Turner Field where the Major League Baseball team Atlanta Braves played their home games at 755 Hank Aaron Drive.

About two miles north of the 25,000-seat stadium, a new Center Parc Credit Union branch opened just steps from Centennial Olympic Park in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Plans are in the works to open another Center Parc location near the stadium owned by Georgia State University. Two other Center Parc branches also were opened in Wal-Mart stores in Savannah and plans are underway to open a free-standing Center Parc branch in the same city.

APCU became Georgia’s first chartered credit union in 1925 and is the nation’s largest postal credit union. For decades, the credit union has enjoyed strong and steady growth serving postal workers and their families throughout the state, expanding its membership reach to national postal organizations, Georgia state government employees, trade unions and other SEGs. The credit union also grew through mergers and is currently the fourth largest financial cooperative in the Peach State by assets and seventh largest by membership, which now stands at 100,774.

Although APCU consistently recorded strong and steady growth in its assets, and retained capital, net worth and loans, its efforts to increase the membership ranks hit a plateau over the last few years.

“So, we were set pretty good, except we weren’t growing. We just couldn’t get the membership,” APCU President/CEO Chuck Head said.

In 2015 and 2016, the credit union saw membership growth of less than one percent. Though membership increased by a little over one percent in 2017, it fell by more than 7.5% and 4.8% in 2018 and 2019, respectively, according to the credit union’s NCUA financial performance reports. In the first quarter of 2020, membership was nearly zero, but it picked up to 1.58% and 1.86% in the second and third quarters, respectively.

Head believes membership reached a plateau and declined because potential members in Georgia and metro Atlanta were not sure whether they could or should join a credit union that primarily served the postal community. Likewise, although members of national postal organizations from other states were eligible to join APCU, doing business with a financial institution that was not in their home state probably did not come across as very practical.

The credit union’s executive team and board discussed the possibility of a name change, but because of its deep roots in serving the postal community, the board decided to keep the APCU name and brand.

During a credit union conference, Head learned how the $4.4 billion Baxter Credit Union in Vernon Hills, Ill., merged the Target Credit Union but decided to maintain its name and rebranded it as a division of BCU.

“So, I said, why can’t we do that? Why can’t we – rather than through a merger – create this new credit union by putting a new brand out there that has a different name, a different look but it’s powered by APCU. We didn’t just want to say we came up with this new brand. We’ve got to let folks know that this credit union is backed by APCU with 95 years of history. That’s a good thing for consumers to know that you’re not just a new credit union on the block that they may be leery about, but rather Center Parc is backed by a credit union that has been around for a long time.”

After securing support from his executive team and approval from the board, Center Parc Credit Union, a division of APCU, was born. The spelling of Parc plays off the word “parcel,” which pays homage to Center Parc’s postal roots.

The rapid growth of Georgia State University, which is now the state’s largest institution of higher education, came under the leadership of President Mark Becker, which convinced Head to make the $21 million investment for the naming rights of the stadium. The stadium was redesigned and renovated for the university’s football program and was part of Becker’s aggressive plans that advanced the physical development of the university’s campus with new housing, dining, research and academic facilities, becoming a major catalyst in the revitalization of downtown Atlanta.

“When I spoke with President Becker, I shared in his vision by telling him about how Atlanta Postal had been in Atlanta since 1925 serving middle to lower- and middle-class families,” Head said. “That resonated with him because he wants so much to help the neighborhoods around the university and he’s always looking for partners to help him accomplish that. We’re very excited to be a part of it, and to be branded in such a way that it’s going to encourage potential members to come through our doors at Center Parc Credit Union to serve their financial needs as we have been doing for the postal community for years.”