Spokane-based Sterling Savings Bank plans to open two new retail bank branches in the Seattle areaincluding its first retail branch in downtown Seattlenext month. The second new branch will be located north of Seattle, in Lynnwood.


The two retail locations will give Sterling a total of 140 branches in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.


Sterling is opening its downtown-Seattle retail branch after an extensive site search, says Sterling spokeswoman Jennifer Lutz. Its hard to find a good location, she says.


Lease Crutcher Lewis LCL, a Seattle construction company, is remodeling a 4,600-square-foot ground-level space at 1406 Fourth for the city-center branch, Lutz says. Although Sterling will begin operations at that site with only five employees, it plans to add staff members as the bank grows into the space, which its leasing.


Sterling already has a combination private-banking and business-banking office in downtown Seattle, as well as a corporate-banking office, Lutz says. The private-banking and business-banking operation, which is located at 1191 Second, employs 14 people, and the corporate-banking office, which is located at 601 Union, employs 13, she says.


Sterling also has Seattle-area branches in the Ballard and Northgate areas, one in Burien, and two in Bellevue, including a business-banking office.


Lease Crutcher also is constructing a 59,000-square-foot building near Lynnwoods Alderwood Mall in which both the Sterling Savings branch and an office of the banks Action Mortgage subsidiary will be housed, says Linda Seghetti, another Sterling spokeswoman. The bank branch will occupy 5,200 square feet of floor space in the building, and Action Mortgage will occupy 1,500 square feet of space, says Seghetti.


As at the downtown site, the Lynnwood location wont offer drive-through banking, but will have an ATM machine outside, says Lutz.


The new Lynnwood branch, at 19230 Alderwood Mall Parkway, is expected to open in November, and initially will have five employees, Lutz says.