Credit union bringing financial services to south Modesto’s bustling Crows Landing
South Modesto’s Crows Landing Road bustles with commerce. The commercial strip features used car lot after used car lot, an abundance of car repair businesses, a pharmacy, about a half-dozen grocery stores, restaurants, taquerias and taco trucks, and stores selling everything from cell phones and home furnishings to clothing and appliances. There is even a travel agency and a bait shop.
One business missing in this primarily Latino and poor community is a financial institution. There is no bank or credit union in south Modesto. The closest are several miles away in downtown Modesto or Ceres.
But that is about to change.
Self-Help Federal Credit Union plans on building a branch and a community center on roughly 1 1/2 acres on the east side of Crows Landing Road near Highway 99 where Mendoza Auto Sales now sits. The credit union has purchased the car dealer’s property.
Construction could start in the first quarter of 2021, and the 6,000-square-foot credit union branch and 2,000-square-foot community center could open in the second quarter of 2022, according to the city. The project is expected to cost about $5.5 million, according to a city report and public records, and the city is contributing $500,000.
“It’s definitely going to be a showcase,” said Joe Duran, who retired as Self-Help’s executive vice president about a year ago but with the understanding he would stay on to complete this project.
Self-Help focuses on helping people and communities that are not served or fully served by conventional financial institutions. That includes promoting financial literacy, helping families own their own home, investing in distressed communities and helping low- and moderate-income people build wealth. Duran said the south Modesto project more than meets that mission.
Duran said building a community center is not new for Self-Help. He said the nonprofit credit union has community centers at branches in Fresno, Los Angeles and Chicago. Self-Help operates about three dozen branches in four states.
Duran’s career with the credit union was based in Stanislaus County. Besides the south Modesto branch, Self-Help operates another Modesto branch on Tenaya Drive — which also houses the call center and IT operations for the entire credit union — and a branch in Riverbank.
The community center will accommodate as many as 120 people and have a kitchen, pantry, patio and benches. It will be used by nonprofits and community groups. It could hold classes in financial literacy, job skills and English as a second language and where immigration rights groups could provide updates on the latest in immigration law and policy.
The city also will use the center to provide services to residents. The center also could be used for community celebrations.
Store manager sees need for banking
The credit union branch and community center were good news for La Michoacana Plus Ice Cream Parlor manager Maria Gomez and her employee Ana Verduzco. The two talked about the project while in their Crows Landing Road store.
“It’s a good idea,” said Gomez in Spanish as Verduzco translated. “There is no bank nearby.”
Gomez said the Crows Landing Road commercial corridor is growing and having its own credit union branch can only help with that. Gomez said she hopes the community center can serve as a focus point and give residents a place to go for community events.
“It adds more” to south Modesto, Verduzco said. “It’s going to make the area more vivid.”
Duran credited then Mayor Garrad Marsh and Councilman Tony Madrigal for convincing him several years ago to consider Crows Landing Road. Duran in 2015 talked about Self-Help’s hope that it could reach a deal to purchase a couple of acres at the Crows Landing site of the former Modesto Tallow Co. Self-Help could not come to terms with the property owners.
Duran said Madrigal and Mayor Ted Brandvold continued to advocate for the project. He said Brandvold convened at least a dozen meetings with city staff in recent years to help keep the project on track.
Duran also thanked Community and Economic Development Director Jaylen French, Planning Manager Steve Mitchell, City Engineer Vickey Dion and Community Development Manager Jessica Narayan for their work and the South Modesto Partnership and City Ministry Network for their encouragement.
City Council approves project funding
The Modesto City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved spending $500,000 of the federal funding it receives to help low-income residents for this project. The funding is for the community center and public right of way improvements, including a traffic signal.
Madrigal said he hopes the project serves as a catalyst for more development. He also thanked South Modesto Businesses United for its support of the project.
“Often times when you have an area such as south Modesto that has not seen new construction, new projects for a long time,” Madrigal said, “it takes a project that is big and significant like a new bank or credit union, especially with a community center attached to it, to help jump-start redevelopment.”
Duran said even in the age of online banking there still is a need for brick-and-mortar branches. He said Self-Help offers those online services, but it also wants to have a physical presence in the communities it serves so it can build relationships and trust with residents.
“We are very hands on,” he said. “Some of our members may not have used an ATM before. We want face-to-face contact. We do a lot in financial literacy. The mission is to fill that void among those who are unbanked or underbanked.”
Duran said banks cannot make money servicing communities like south Modesto. But he said as a nonprofit, Self-Help has access to funding that banks don’t and that helps it serve the underserved.
Duran said it also helps that high-net-worth individuals, foundations and banks put their money in Self-Help because they believe in its mission. He said those deposits help provide Self-Help with working capital for loans.
This story was originally published December 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
