Ciera plans to demolish Fort Worth bank and rebuild

Ciera Bank expects to demolish its Fort Worth banking facilities on Summit Avenue and rebuild on the site with a three-story building that will feature six apartments on the top floor.

The 20,000-square-foot project received approval from the Downtown Design Review Board Thursday. The bank also has received preliminary regulatory approval to move to a temporary facility at Summit and Lancaster avenues during construction, said Charlie Powell, who was recently named president of the Fort Worth branch.

The bank has been at 1501 Summit Ave. since 2008. Its current building, which was not originally built for a bank, is about 14,000 square feet. The new building will be more efficient and offer a more professional banking atmosphere, he said. Construction of the new bank will take about nine to 10 months.

Ciera will use the street level for a branch location and have offices on the second floor. The bank, which dates to 1890 and has its headquarters in Graham, has 17 employees in Fort Worth.

The building’s position on Summit is changing with the new design. The bank’s drive-through lanes will remain at the back of the property, but the main entrance will be on the north side of the building. The building will also sit in the middle of the block with parking on both sides, rather than running along Summit between the highway access and Rio Grande Avenue.

The bank is proposing a possible small parklike area at the corner of Summit, where motorists come off Interstate 30 to turn right.

Fort Worth developer Tom Reynolds, who lives in the nearby Sunset Terrace neighborhood, said the neighborhood association supports the project and is hoping the new park area will help to slow traffic on Summit and address the issue of panhandlers.

“I see this as a chance to address this,” Reynolds said.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Ciera plans to demolish Fort Worth bank and rebuild."