A new bank — one with long hours and open on Sunday — may come to Centreville. Commerce Bank would like to build a branch at the corner of Centrewood Drive and Machen Road in the Marketplace at Centre Ridge Shopping Center.
Land-use attorney Fred Taylor and engineer Adam Volanth presented details at Tuesday's meeting of the West Fairfax County Citizens Association (WFCCA) Land-Use Committee. Commerce Bank began in Philadelphia and spread to New York and other parts of the Northeast and has some 250 branches.
Now planned is a 3,700-square-foot bank with four drive-throughs — one, an ATM. The entrance would be on Multiplex Drive. "This is the first of the sites in this area," said Taylor. "The founder and CEO, Vernon Hill, is from Vienna."
Taylor said the drive-through window would probably be open from 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m., with lobby hours Monday-Wednesday, from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
"It's more realistic and is when a lot of us really have the time to do business," said Taylor. "Commerce Bank provides service and is incredibly responsive to the hour needs of people." Replied WFCCA's Mary Coyle: "It's wonderful customer service, if you're really going to run those hours."
HE AND VOLANTH sought the WFCCA's guidance prior to submitting an application to the county. WFCCA's Kathleen Hill advised them to meet with her homeowners association, Centre Ridge Owners, because the site is on land within the association's boundaries. And since the townhouses across from the Shopper's Food Warehouse there belong to the Centre Ridge Regents, she suggested they meet with that association, too.
"There are townhomes that sit all along there, so they'll be interested in the lighting and screening," said Hill. "That whole area is basically an eyesore, so they'll be looking for brick — no vinyl — and it'll have to be nice. And I hope the outside isn't modern." Regarding signage, she added, "We don't mind back-lit signs, but we don't want them 25 feet in the air."
At-large Planning Commissioner Jim Hart gave a brief overview of that site's history, relating that, in the past 10 years, everything has been proposed there from a Clyde's restaurant with an ice rink to senior-citizens' housing, mixed-use retail, an Eckerd drugstore and townhouses.
"This site has been an orphan because of its difficult geometry," he said. He also said it would be better if the bank's front could be oriented toward the movie theater, instead of the townhouses. Furthermore, said Hart, "In that shopping center, there's a confetti of different colors and architectural styles — none of which seem to relate to each other. If there was a way you could make [the bank] relate to something, instead of making it one more odd element, it would help."
The plan also needs county approval. If all goes well, said Taylor, "We'd love to get this to the Board of Supervisors in July, before it recesses in August."