Sterling Savings opens branch in Liberty Lake

There is one thing that Liberty Lake is not short of: banks.

There are seven clustered around Liberty Lake Road in the fledgling city, and the newest member of the family, Sterling Savings, will open the eighth on Monday.

“We felt this was a really good location,” said Bill Bancroft, the facilities services director for Sterling Savings Bank.

The new branch is opening near the new Home Depot store on Country Vista Drive. The branch is near the base of the new Legacy Ridge development. To the west lies nothing but a field of weeds and grass.

“Those won’t be fields before too long,” said Matthew Liezen, construction specialist for the bank. The bank is anticipating further growth in the area and will be in a good position to meet customers, he said. “We feel like we’re really in a prime spot.”

Construction began on the new branch Jan. 17, and workers were putting on the finishing touches last week.

The building features a drive-through, a curved line of teller windows, granite counters, a new vault, high-quality interior finishes and a new security system. The building will serve as a prototype for all new Sterling Savings branches.

“A lot of work went into the right type of lighting,” Bancroft said. Special fixtures and different bulbs allow for plenty of light in the branch at levels that don’t hurt customers’ eyes.

A large clock tower in the front resembles the clock tower on the downtown Spokane building, a style that the architect wanted to mirror in new branches.