Connect First to consolidate in former Scotiabank call centre
Connect First Credit Union will consolidate all of its Calgary staff into one location this November in the former Scotiabank call centre facility on Sunridge Boulevard N.E.
Chief executive Paul Kelly says he toured a number of other locations with his commercial real estate representative at Colliers International but felt that the northeast address was the most suitable for the company and for his employees.
The building is massive, covering around 120,000 square feet on two floors. Connect First has leased the top floor of 63,000 square feet, a floor plate that for the first time will allow it to house 220 Calgary employees to work alongside each other on one level. No other building was available at that size, and the location is also very convenient to Sunridge Mall, Barlow Trail and Deerfoot Trail, making it easily accessible for Connect First’s out-of-town divisions, travelling in from north and south of the city.
The credit union also leased another 5,000 square feet on the main level, where staff will be able to enjoy a cafeteria, fitness room and other amenities. Of the 490 surface parking stalls, Connect First has been allocated 260, a big boost for employees versus paying for parking at any other location. The major lease also gives Connect First naming rights for the building.
The space was listed by Rick Urbanczyk and his team at JLL, who have the remaining 50,000 square feet still available for lease and the rest of the parking stalls.
For staff at the current head office location of Connect First on 16th Avenue N.E., the new address is only 10 minutes away. That building is on land owned by Calgary Co-op and will be demolished when plans for its new mixed-use centre are approved by city hall. That project, in addition to a large grocery store, car wash, gas station, liquor store and multi-family residential, will also include a new flagship First Calgary Financial branch.
First Calgary Financial is the city’s division under the Connect First umbrella. Led by president Shelley Vandenberg, who also oversees Legacy Financial in Inglewood, it now has 16 branches within the city.
Connect First’s 30 rural branches are located to the east and south of the city, stretching from Medicine Hat to Fort Macleod under the name of Chinook Financial. Kelly reports that, effective July 31, it will also have representation north of the city in merging Mountain View Credit Union, based in Olds, as a new member.
As a result, Connect First will have 46 locations and more than 700 employees serving customers in neighbourhood credit unions throughout southern Alberta. He says his next target is to expand Red Deer north and, under his Vision 2025, plans to spread throughout the rest of Alberta where there are 18 other credit unions today.
Kelly says there is a need to expand in scale to keep ahead of technological advances. He is proud of the fact that his Deposit Anywhere function — allowing credit union members to make transactions by taking a photo of a cheque — was a first in Alberta, before banks.
Today, the locations under the umbrella of Connect First brand form one of the largest credit union operations in Canada, with more than 120,000 members who have been paid a dividend of more than $82 million over the past 10 years.
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