Spokane-based Sterling Savings Bank says it's converting a former FirstBank Northwest branch building in Liberty Lake into a call center.

The call center, which Sterling calls a customer resource center, occupies a 2,800-square-foot single-story building at 22408 E. Appleway, says Sterling spokeswoman Jennifer Lutz.

Four bank employees currently are working in the building, which is located at the southwest corner of Appleway Avenue and Meadowwood Lane, Lutz says, adding that a total of 15 employees will be stationed there when the conversion is completed. She says Sterling has enough room there to add five more employees later as they are needed. Most of the employees to be located at the customer resource center will be transferred from crowded space at Sterling's item-processing center in the Spokane International Airport Business Park, at 7106 W. Will D. Alton Lane, she says.

The call center, which isn't open to the public, provides customer support via telephone and e-mail.

Sterling obtained the building in Liberty Lake in 2005, when it acquired Clarkston, Wash.-based FirstBank Northwest, and it has been vacant since then, Lutz says. FirstBank Northwest had eight branches at the time, and the former Liberty Lake branch, which opened in 1999, was its first branch in the Spokane area.

Sterling operates a full-service bank branch in Liberty Lake, at 21601 Country Vista Drive, near the Home Depot Inc. store in the Village at Liberty Lake Shopping Center, south of Interstate 90. That branch, which opened in 2005, occupies 4,200 square feet of space.

Sterling is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sterling Financial Corp., which operates 175 branches throughout Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and California, including 12 branches in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area. Sterling had $12.4 billion in assets as of June 30, down from $12.7 billion a year earlier. For the first half of the year, Sterling reported a net loss of $58.7 million, or $1.13 a share, compared with net income of $14.6 million, or 28 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Its third-quarter earnings report is scheduled to be released Oct. 22.