Post Falls-based Community 1st Bank reported increases in total assets and deposits for the bank’s second quarter, while net income was comparable and net loans declined 3 percent compared with the year-earlier period.

David Bobbitt, chairman and CEO of the bank, says, though, “Our third quarter 2016 will offer even greater promise for our customer as we look to opening our new loan-production office.”

The bank earlier this year purchased the former KXLY building at 504 E. Sherman, in downtown Coeur d’Alene, where it plans to open a loan office initially, and eventually a full-service bank branch.

Bobbitt says an ATM likely will open there later this month, and the loan office, which will focus on commercial and construction lending, will open in September. The bank hopes to have a full-service retail branch in operation in a year or two, he says.

Community 1st will occupy 2,300 square feet of commercial space and is looking for a tenant to lease the back 3,500 square feet of space, Bobbitt says.

The building had been occupied by a First Interstate Bank branch and a Wells Fargo Bank branch before KXLY acquired it.

“Back in those days, banks needed huge branches,” Bobbitt says. “We don’t need so much space anymore.”

Because it was once a bank building, it already has a drive-thru facility, he says. That’s an advantage over other potential new bank locations, because the city of Coeur d’Alene no longer permits construction of new drive-thru facilities downtown, he asserts.

As of June 30, the close of the bank’s second quarter, Community 1st’s loans totaled $59.5 million, down from $61.4 million a year earlier.

Net income for the quarter was $128,000, or 12 cents a share, about level with the year-earlier quarter. Year-to-date earnings, however, totaled $300,000, a 28 percent increase compared with the year-earlier period.

The bank’s assets as of June 30 totaled $108.7 million, an increase of 14 percent compared with a year earlier. Bobbitt says asset growth was driven largely by a $7 million increase in noninterest-bearing deposits.

Community 1st’s total deposits as of June 30 tallied $96.4 million, up from $83.7 million.

Bobbitt says he expects the new loan office will increase the bank’s lending almost immediately upon opening.

He claims Bank of America left a gap in the downtown Coeur d’Alene market when it closed a branch there without replacing it.

“There’s a lot more people living downtown, a lot more business activity, and a lot more street traffic,” he says. “This is the time for a community bank to go in.”

Community 1st has two branches. Its original branch, which opened 2007, is located at 707 N. Post, in central Post Falls. The bank’s second branch opened in 2011, at 435 W. Hanley, in north Coeur d’Alene.

The bank has 21 full-time-equivalent employees.