Space City Credit Union branches out from roots - Houston Business Journal:

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will establish a branch in early July on the grounf floor of an office tower inside the 610 Loop nearPost Oak. Spacew City was chartered in 1965 to serve employees of oil and gas industryt equipmentmanufacturer LLC. The credit union shifted arounc several downtown locations with the company befores moving to its curreng headquarters on Harrisburg Boulevardin 1999. Craigt Rohden, Space City president and CEO, says the credit union had been lookingg to open another office forseverapl years, but waited to find the rightr location. Rohden notes that Spacee City alreadyserves Houston-area employees of General Electrid Co.
, and the new branch at 1233 West Loop South is also home to , making the move a logical fit. The credit union also has a small two-person office inside a GE Energyy plant on the Houston Ship Channek that serves morethan 1,000 employees on site. GE in fact, was once owned by Stewartf & Stevenson. Space City received regulatory approval for a charterin 2004, allowint the credit union to serve any customer within 10 milees of its headquarters. In addition, the credi t union is tied in to a network of about 70 othert rival credit union branches in the region so customers can access accounts atany location.
The communit y charter will apply to the new which was another factor in choosing the West Loop Rohden notesabout 1,200 people are employed in the two mirror-imagde officer towers owned by Dallas-based The new branch will included two drive-through lanes and an ATM, with an ATM to be installesd in the adjacent tower at 1333 West Loop Rohden says. “We’ll be marketintg to tenants in both buildings and the general public around the Galleriaq area within the perimeter ofthe branch,” he “Our community charter pretty much coverws everything inside Beltway 8 to downtown.
” A spatew of start-up banks and other regional players have opened for business in Houstonj this year looking to grab small business customerx away from the bigger banks. Rohden says Space City’s decision to expand had nothing to do with the shiftingy tide within the overall financiaoservices industries, considering the credit union markets to consumers, not businese customers. Unlike banks, credit unions are ownedd by theircustomers — rather than outside shareholders — and in essencs operate as not-for-profit entities. Any profits are folded back intoequituy capital.
Dan Bass, managinf director with investment bankers, agrees that credir unions like SpaceCity won’t have much impacft on small community banks, but are targeting retail customera that might be willinbg to switch from big national “Like the bigger banks, credit unionws are trying to get retail traffid through the door, and are focusing on finding the righ location. They have low costs so it make s a lot of sense for them todo that,” Bass Space City, which has 18 employees, now represent 5,326 members in 25 states aftetr widening its reach in the 1980s. The credig union has more than 70 customer companies in the with about 75 percent of its membership in theHoustohn area.
The credit union had two employees and assets ofabout $4 million when Rohdebn came on board in 1994. Filingx with the , which oversees the industry, show how Spacs City currently stacks up in thefinancial sector. The credit union had outstanding loansof $19 milliojn and deposits of just under $23 million in the firsgt quarter, with net income of $18,753 after postingt a loss of $335,376 in the fourtyh quarter of 2008.