M&I Bank opened a new branch office on Hanley Road last week - the 16th bank location in the Hudson area.

While the competition for customers has increased in recent years, M&I officials are optimistic about gaining a share of the banking business in the growing Hudson market.

Indeed, M&I employees were busy starting checking accounts for customers Wednesday morning, Nov. 29, the first day

of business for the branch office. It helped that the bank had offered $100 to the first 50 customers to open checking accounts and have their paychecks deposited directly into the accounts.

“We actually have seen some pretty good response already from people coming in and opening accounts,” said Kurt VanRoy, retail market manager for 50 M&I Bank branches in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Ten customers had opened accounts within the first hour.

One couple that opened an account lives in one of the many new townhouses nearby. A woman who has been banking at an M&I branch near her workplace in the Twin Cities stopped by the Hudson office on her way to work.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of that,” VanRoy said of people choosing to bank at the Hudson M&I branch for the convenience.

The facility’s drive-up window is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday to accommodate customers who are unable to bank during regular business hours. The lobby is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Saturday hours are 9 a.m. to noon for both the drive-up window and the lobby.

The new M&I Bank building is located at the corner of Hanley Road and Monetary Boulevard, a few hundred feet west of Carmichael Road. The brick and glass prairie-style building has 4,016 square feet of floor space on the main level and 1,874 square feet below.

M&I is leasing the facility from Hudson developers Jim Zeller and Steve Senrick. It was designed by Frisbie Architects of River Falls and built by Goldridge Construction of Eau Claire.

VanRoy said M&I liked the location for its proximity to the booming Carmichael Road commercial corridor, new residential neighborhoods and St. Croix Business Park.

“It’s obviously a growing area on this side,” he said. “It’s just a great fit.”

Branch Manager Kelly Schreiber described the facility as a “full-service” bank. In addition to checking and savings accounts, it offers consumer and home loans and financial investments.

The bank’s staff of eight includes a mortgage lender and a financial adviser. All come from other financial institutions. Schreiber formerly managed the Associated Bank at River Falls. Mortgage banker Mike Brunner worked at Associated Bank’s downtown Hudson location.

The M&I in the bank’s name stands for Marshall and Ilsley.

Samuel Marshall started the financial institution in a rented cobbler shop in Milwaukee in 1847. He was joined by partner Charles Ilsley two years later.

Today, Marshall & Ilsley Corp., with $45 billion in assets, is the largest financial services company headquartered in Wisconsin.

M&I Bank has 194 offices throughout Wisconsin, 39 in Arizona and 13 in the Twin Cities - as well as locations in Duluth, Minn., Las Vegas and Florida.

VanRoy said the M&I holding company is in an expansion mode and shows no sign of slowing down. It recently acquired Kansas-headquartered Gold Bank, he said.

Randy Hanson can be reached at rhanson@rivertowns.net

Hudson Star Observer Articles and River Falls Journal Articles reprinted with permission from the newspapers.