After years of on-again and off-again plans to open a Graham branch, State Employees’ Credit Union is on track to open what will be its fourth branch in the county next summer.
At 11,000 square feet, the Graham branch at 220 South Main Street will be its largest in Alamance County, SECU senior vice president Mark Greene said Monday in an interview with The Alamance News.
Raleigh-based Summit Engineering & Design is designing the renovation for the former BB&T bank in Graham, according to Mark Greene, a senior vice president at State Employees’ Credit Union who oversees the three existing branches in Alamance County, as well as branches in Randolph and Rocking-ham counties.
“Previously, it was all speculation; now it’s a done deal,” Greene told the newspaper Monday.
“Basically they’re going to renovate the entire inside – take out the old BB&T and put in a whole new building. Our facilities team in Raleigh – they handle all the branches throughout North Carolina – said by far this will be the nicest branch in the state. This is one of a few projects in the state that’s going to be, for all intents and purposes, a new branch.”
– Senior Vice President Mark Greene
“Basically they’re going to renovate the entire inside – take out the old BB&T and put in a whole new building. Our facilities team in Raleigh – they handle all the branches throughout North Carolina – said by far this will be the nicest branch in the state. This is one of a few projects in the state that’s going to be, for all intents and purposes, a new branch.”
Summit Engineering & Design (Summit) built new branches and designed renovations for approximately 45 SECU branches in North Carolina, according to the credit union. While Summit has previously relied on three design prototypes it developed for the credit union several years ago, the forthcoming Graham branch will be designed from scratch, Greene said.
Crews recently erected a fence around the building and parking lot in preparation to renovate the former BB&T property.
Summit submitted two sets of site plans to Graham’s planning department in March and April of this year, and the city’s Technical Review Committee signed off on the second submittal in May, Graham planner Jonathan Buckley told the newspaper Tuesday.
Nine existing Crape Myrtles and several ornamental shrubs at the front of the property will be removed, along with a “failing Dogwood” tree closer to the building and several Bradford Pear trees at the back of the property, based on the approved site plan. Crape Myrtle and Bradford Pear trees are considered invasive species because they easily reseed themselves and, in the case of Bradford Pears, crowd out other plants and shed blooms that stink, according to several agricultural extension offices.
The 2.8-acre site also will be revamped. SECU plans to eliminate one parking space (for an overall total of 69, versus 70, spaces); two parking spaces will be converted to handicap-accessible, increasing the number of handicapped parking spaces from three to five, the site plan shows. New asphalt and concrete also will be laid throughout the site, Buckley said Tuesday.
The credit union is also “altering the front of the property” to add a new handicap ramp on the lefthand side of the front of the building. “If you’re facing the building, it comes off the front and curves to the left, where the new [handicapped] parking will be,” Buckley said Tuesday.
The lefthand side of the property will also have a new courtyard/plaza area.
The site fronts South Main Street and backs up to South Marshall Street. The two existing entrances and two exits at the front and back of the property will remain unchanged, based on the approved site plan.
SECU purchased the former BB&T branch in Graham for $1.9 million in November 2021, based on documents that were filed at the time with the county’s Register of Deeds. The existing bank building spans 11,104 square feet and was built in 1984, according to Alamance County tax records, which list the latest assessed value at $1.9 million.
SECU had planned for years to open a branch in Graham – initially near the intersection of South Main and West Moore streets – but put those plans on hold amid the Covid-19 pandemic and after the credit union’s board of directors decided to shift its focus to improving online services infrastructure, Greene said in an earlier interview.
NO MORE CRYING ‘WOLF’
”I feel like I’ve definitely been for the last 10 years the boy that cried wolf because it’s been off and on. Realistically, a year from now, we hope to be moved in. They’re hoping they’ll be done by May 2027, but then we have to get everything set with hiring and equipment.”
– SECU senior vice president Mark Greene
”I feel like I’ve definitely been for the last 10 years the boy that cried wolf because it’s been off and on,” Greene acknowledged in the interview. “Realistically, a year from now, we hope to be moved in. They’re hoping they’ll be done by May 2027, but then we have to get everything set with hiring and equipment.”
Meanwhile, SECU will also continue to offer self-service options at its ATM in the parking lot outside Food Lion at 921 South Main Street in Graham, Greene confirmed.
With assets at $55 billion and 275 branches across all 100 North Carolina counties, SECU is the second-largest credit union in the U.S., behind Navy Federal Credit Union, according to a June 2026 report by U.S. News & World Report.
“Our branch on Alamance Road is the number one lending branch of all State Employees’ Credit Union branches in North Carolina.”
– SECU senior vice president Mark Greene
“Our branch on Alamance Road is the number one lending branch of all State Employees’ Credit Union branches in North Carolina,” said Greene.
“This area is a sweet spot because it’s between the Triad and the Triangle,” the senior VP added. “Think about Alamance County – you have [Interstate] 40/85. You have a lot of land that’s being built up, and you’re right in the middle of North Carolina. A lot of people are moving to North Carolina, so I think this area has picked up because of that…They see the need here in Alamance County. The three branches we have here are very, very strong.”
