Dupaco Opens Branch in Southeast Iowa

Dupaco Community Credit Union opened its newest “learning lab” branch July 11 in southeast Iowa, a concept designed for learning both by the public and the credit union.

The new branch is just off I-80 in Coralville, Iowa, six miles northwest of downtown Iowa City and 90 miles southwest of the Dubuque headquarters for the credit union ($3.3 billion in assets, 165,604 members as of March 31).

Emily Kress, a Dupaco spokeswoman, said Monday that Dupaco’s Coralville Learning Lab is in an existing building Dupaco purchased in 2021 and completely renovated for a Dupaco branch.

Dupaco occupies 8,200 square feet on the first floor of the 18,936-square-foot, three-story building. The building’s second floor and part of the third floor provide leased space by two separate commercial tenants.

Kress said the branch includes both in-person and video tellers.

“We currently have eight employees who call the Coralville Learning Lab their home base,” Kress said. “This includes employees from our retail branch as well as our business lending, training and Community Outreach and Education teams.”

A Dupaco news release said the Learning Lab branch focuses on improving ways in which credit union staff help members understand money. The branch is designed to:

• Explore and test new ways of helping members understand money and improve their financial positions.
• Teach members how to control their money through hands-on demonstrations of Dupaco desktop and mobile deposit services.
• Deploy and test emerging technologies that shift staff time and resources from traditional transactional duties to more in-depth member interactions.
• Test future member-centric branch designs and concepts through a flexible layout.

Dupaco’s Learning Lab branch has a flexible, open layout designed to allow efficient use of space.

Branch Manager Rich Younts said Dupaco tellers use interactive video teller technology, which allows them to conduct real-time, face-to-face transactions from a distance. Dupaco employees located at a central location remotely operate the lobby and drive-thru video teller machines.

“Video tellers allow our onsite branch employees to spend more time with members having deeper conversations about money, advice and services,” Younts said. “We also expect the video tellers to increase future opportunities for member convenience — to serve more members, in more places, with expanded hours of service.”

The Coralville is Dupaco’s first branch in Johnson County. With Coralville, Dupaco now has 24 branches plus its Dubuque headquarters, two more locations than a year earlier. However, the count will fall to 23 branches by year’s end with the planned Oct. 1 closing of its Asbury branch near Dubuque, where the credit union determined it had too many branches.