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Mendo Lake Credit Union is planning to open another full-service Lake County branch – similar to the one in Lakeport – in Clearlake in early April, according to Richard Cooper, the credit union's president and chief executive officer.
Cooper said the branch will be located in the Burns Valley Mall, in the storefront once occupied by a Rent-A-Center.
“We considered a lot of other places but we kept coming back to Burns Valley Mall,” Cooper said, noting the location is in close proximity to the senior center and apartment complexes.
The location also puts the new branch near a newly opened Dollar Store and Grocery Outlet, tenants that the credit union is excited about, Cooper said, noting the stores have gotten “substantially better than planned business” in the location.
When those businesses signed leases in the mall, Cooper said that was the final icing on the cake for the credit union, which has been looking at opening a Clearlake branch since 2008, the year he started there.
“We have really studied this one hard,” Cooper said.
Clearlake Building Inspector Scott Spivey said that on Sept. 10 he received the credit union's application and set of plans, which called for 90-percent interior remodeling and about 10-percent for the building's exterior. He said he was waiting for a new set of revised plans to review.
Cooper said they are planning to hire several new employees early next year.
“This has been a long time in coming,” Cooper said.
He credited credit union board member Cameron Reeves, also the retired county counsel for Lake County, with being a huge advocate for opening a Clearlake branch.
Cooper said the credit union has gotten a lot of encouragement from city officials and the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce.
Noting that part of the credit union's 51-year-old charter calls for it to serve people of more modest incomes, he said a location in Clearlake is “such a great match for us.”
In addition to being nearer to its 1,000 south county members, Cooper said the credit union hopes to encourage more people who don't use traditional financial service providers to use the institution's services.
No matter what a person's previous issues were with banks, they can come in and get a free basic checking account, he said, rather than depending on check cashing services. They'll also be offered direct access to low-cost consumer credit.
Many of Mendo Lake Credit Union's local members came to them through car loans with local car dealers, he said.
Cooper said the credit union is the No. 1 auto lender in both Lake and Mendocino counties, with $48 million in new and used auto loans. This year alone, they put out close to $30 million in new car loans, he said.
The credit union offers loans for older vehicles, offering loans for cars that go back before the current Kelly Blue Book, which is what most banks adhere to when making loans, he said. They'll loan on a car manufactured as early as 1985, with mileage restrictions.
“We've seen a huge decline in our new car volume,” Cooper said, explaining that they're seeing more cars from the late 1990s and the earlier part of this decade. “People are shopping for what they can afford.”
After a few tough years that began in 2008 – the credit union saw a lot of its low income customers get hit early in the recession – Cooper said they're seeing interesting economic changes among their members, which could be evidence of the signs of economic recovery.
For one, the average car loan balance in 2008 was $20,000, now it's $15,000. For another, they're seeing less loan delinquency.
The credit union also is getting back into the mortgage business after a hiatus from making loans during the recession. In July 2009 Mendo Lake Credit Union received $2 million in federal stimulus funds, which it planned to use to get back into making home loans, as Lake County News has reported.
Cooper said the institution current has $19 million in home and manufactured home loans in Lake and Mendocino counties. Their offerings include loans for mobile homes in parks, which are hard to find.
During the foreclosure crisis, the credit union had only one foreclosure, said Cooper. “We've done a lot to work with people.”
Cooper said Mendo Lake Credit Union is very “consumer focused” while some of the major money center banks are business focused. He thinks the credit union and Clearlake will be a good match as a result.
“We just really see lots of strong potential for Clearlake,” Cooper said.
The credit union can be found online at https://www.mlcu.org/site/ or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Mendo-Lake-Credit-Union/159996074976 .
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