Farmers & Merchants State Bank plans branch near Mercy Medical

Farmers & Merchants State Bank plans to open a small south Nampa branch, on 12th Avenue Road across from Mercy Medical Center, by October.

The Boise-based bank will move a modular building of 1,200 square feet onto the 1.3-acre site, and open with a staff of six, said Executive Vice President and Branch Administrator Ed Zimmerman. Construction of a permanent branch office – a wood-framed building of 4,200 square feet with a stucco and brick veneer exterior – will follow within two years.

“We feel that there are distinct opportunities on that end of the market,” he said. “There is only one bank located on that end of town (Wells Fargo), and there is continuing population growth to the south. That is the center of the medical community and a lot of attorneys and professional people.”

Zimmerman said the south Nampa branch will complement and take pressure off the downtown Nampa branch because many customers live on the south side. The downtown branch, on Second Street South at Nampa Boulevard, primarily serves small businesses.

Sage Construction, Caldwell, will place the modular building on the 12th Avenue Road site, also accessible from Iowa Avenue.

Farmers & Merchants generally opens on a new site in a temporary building – offering all services except safe-deposit boxes – then builds a permanent structure when the branch reaches profitability. Nampa architectural firm Olson & Associates has designed the bank’s permanent buildings in recent years.

Zimmerman estimated costs at $500,000 to acquire the south Nampa site, $50,000 to set the modular building that the bank owns, and $500,000 to construct the permanent building eventually.

It will be the eighth branch for Farmers & Merchants, which has $283 million in total assets, compared to about $243 million a year ago.

The bank is building a new, larger, branch in Caldwell and is expanding its branch in Garden City.