SANTE FE, N.M.–State Employees Credit Union has begun building a new headquarters.
The three-story, 29,000-square-foot headquarters will be built directly behind its current branch/main office building at St. Michael’s Drive and Calle Lorca, and will also be next to the credit union’s mortgage center.
The $7 million-plus building will go where Molly’s Kitchen & Lounge used to be, a property the credit union acquired 1.5 years ago. Construction is expected to start in mid-June with completion expected around April 2022, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Rapid Asset Growth
SECU CEO Harold Dixon, who has overseen asset growth to $867-million from $50 million during his 24-year career, while also adding 29 employees over the past year, told the publication he has wanted to expand the credit union’s headquarters for years. It has added $180-million in assets since December 2019 alone.
Dixon noted the credit union, established in 1958, has nearly 50,000 members after surpassing 40,000 just three years ago. In 2016, it opened membership beyond state and city employees and their families.
“We didn’t need to do it, but we were getting such demand,” Dixon told the New Mexican. “We kept our lobbies open. We had zero cases of people [bringing] COVID to employees or employees giving it to people. We just keep getting a ton of business.”
Dixon said commercial lending has been the CU’s biggest area of growth, with mortgage lending also strong.
Flexible on Space
According to the New Mexican, the third floor of the new building will remain vacant for now. The ground floor street front space could be leased for five years “plus or minus,” depending on when the credit union may need the space, Dixon said.
“The back end of the first floor could be a deli or coffee shop,” Dixon said.
State Employees Credit Union has seven branches in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Belen, Las Vegas, Los Lunas and Rio Rancho.