Friday, February 09, 2018

"Where Everyone Knows Your Name": First National Bank Of Long Island Coming To Smith Street

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First National Bank Of Long Island's website
First National Bank Of Long Island's website

As though the neighborhood isn't already saturated with banks, it would appear that a relatively small Long Island bank is about to open a branch at 227 Smith Street.  The space was most recently occupied by family-owned artisanal pasta restaurant Pazzi Pasta, which folded in early 2017.

First National Bank of Long Island has about 50 branches all over Long Island and has recently expanded into Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. It was founded in 1927 as The First National Bank of Glen Head and officially changed its name to its current one in 1978.

According to its web site,  the bank "where everyone knows your name" is committed "to deliver quality, personalized service to affluent consumers, small businesses, middle market prospects and professionals such as doctors, dentists, attorneys and CPA's. Our outstanding service is what differentiates us from our competition. All of our branches are staffed by knowledgeable and professional account officers with broad based banking expertise, who focus on building relationships, not transactions. We offer a complete array of consumer and business banking products, including Checking and Savings accounts, Commercial and Residential Lending Services and Investment Management products and services."

Are you excited about a smaller, 'friendlier' bank opening its doors in the neighborhood, or would you rather the commercial space had been taken over by a new eatery?

*Is it just us or is the mention of 'affluent consumers' a bit nauseating?
**Note to First National Bank, in case they see the post: You are opening a branch in Boerum Hill, NOT in Cobble Hill.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

In what fantasy world is the neighborhood saturated with banks??? There is no Bank of America anywhere close by, Columbia Street and Red Hook are banking deserts, and, off the top of my head, I can name the three old Banca Sessas, the bank where Trader Joe's is, and the bank where Buddy used to live, as former banks that are now closed. Sure, Investors, TD, and Capitol One have opened, but banks open, they close, they merge. That's life, not a saturation.

Unknown said...

This space could have been what the neighborhood really needs: a Shanghainese restaurant.

Jimmy From Brooklyn said...

Oh great.......another bank.

Anonymous said...

A bank! That's a perfect addition to Smith Street - said no one ever.

Anonymous said...

It shouldnt be hard to understand that one the main reasons why Smith Street has failed is because after a few good eateries opened up 20+ years ago, it was flooded with dozens of more that delivered terrible products and "saturated" the market. This is not a dense part of Brooklyn that can only support X amount of the same product. And yes, banks are boring but the chances of them going vacant are much slimmer and they bring traffic to the block that will help the adjacent tenants. Add up all of the banks on Smith St, divide it by how many businesses are on the block...You will laugh at yourself for saying this market is saturated..

MrsSam said...

Greetings Katia,

Wow. They are making it VERY clear who they want their customer base to be. Why didn’t they just put the dollar amount required to do business with them? Seems a bit odd to word their bio that way. Then again, I’m not affluent so what do I know?