Weiser to get an Icon Credit Union in July

Icon Credit Union is opening a Weiser branch inside the Ridley’s Family Market currently under construction — the community’s first credit union since 2015.

The full-service branch will let customers open new accounts and apply for consumer, mortgage and business loans. It will include a 24-hour ATM.

The Weiser branch is expected to open in July. It will mark the ninth location for Icon, which in March also started constructing the Ten Mile Branch at Ten Mile and McMillan in Meridian.

“The Northwest Credit Union Association is excited to see Icon adding a new branch,” said Danielle Sittu, senior vice president of marketing & communications for the organization, which represents Idaho credit unions.

A builder and a budget haven’t yet been determined. The branch is being designed by Cole Architects.

“It is a wonderful opportunity for the region to have a credit union open in Weiser,” said Kit Kamo, executive director of the Snake River Economic Development Association. “New developments such as this are always a great indication that Washington County is becoming economically stronger.”

Previously, Mountain Gem Credit Union operated a branch in Weiser, which shut down in August 2015. Mountain Gem blamed the closure on decreasing demand for auto loans due to the 2008 recession. The community has been without a credit union since then, though it has branches of three banks: Columbia, Wells Fargo and Zions.

Icon was founded in 1952 and now has assets of $300 million and 25,000 members, with locations in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Weister and La Grande, Oregon. The company expanded into Nampa about a year ago by purchasing the former Chase branch building downtown.

The new branch in Weiser is bucking a trend in rural banking. Across the United States, rural areas are losing branches, according to “Banking Deserts in America,” a study from the Washington, D.C.-based National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Two new “deserts” – regions that lost a branch with no other branch within 10 miles – were created in Idaho in recent years, in Craigmont and Arco, according to the organization.

Credit unions are particularly popular in rural areas, Sittu said.

“In rural Idaho counties, approximately 164,700 people are credit union members, which represents 49 percent of the rural population,” she said. “While many out-of-state, for-profit financial services institutions have closed branches in rural communities, local credit unions remain committed to serving these populations, providing services such as agricultural, home, vehicle, and small business loans that area consumers need.”

Ridley’s is building a new grocery store in Weiser after the old one was damaged by snow in 2017. The new location is located on five acres on Sixth Street, next to Bi-Mart, one block off U.S. 95. The new 55,000-square-foot supermarket will be 25,000 square feet larger than the previous 2.9 acre location on First Street.

In addition to the credit union, the new store is also expected to add a full-service hardware section. Weiser will be the 13^th of 31 Ridley’s Family Markets to have a hardware section.

TAIT & Associates in Boise is the architect for the Ridley’s Family Market.

Ridley’s has been in Weiser since 1999, acquiring what originally was a Safeway built in 1979. The Jerome-based company has 32 stores in Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado, as well as in Idaho.