Sunwest Bank closing downtown branch

A new face in Idaho banking is leaving downtown Boise. Sunwest Bank notified its customers on March 10 that it will close its branch and offices at One Capital Center at 10th and Main streets. Bank CEO and President Chris Walsh said the closure will happen at the end of May.

Sunwest entered Idaho at the end of January when it acquired the failed Syringa Bank. Walsh said the downtown location had offices for former bank leaders, but that space is no longer needed.

“Most of those positions have been eliminated from the bank,” he said. Sunwest had 5,000 square feet of space in One Capital Center for its offices and branch.

“It didn’t make sense for the cost we were outlying,” Walsh said.

Human resources director Sydney Steele, one of the remaining bank executives from the Syringa days, will move to the bank’s Orchard Street branch, Walsh said. Two of the bank’s three branch staff will also move to the Orchard location. Walsh said he wasn’t sure about the third employee.

Walsh said there haven’t been any other significant changes at any of Sunwest’s five Idaho locations, though some staff from the Syringa days have left the bank.

“For the most part, the people in the branches that are serving the clients will be there serving the clients,” he said.

UPDATED 3/14: Sunwest Bank has five remaining branches in Idaho.