New home: Bank building permanent presence in Brownsville
Aug. 23—Texas National Bank is getting a permanent home in Brownsville, on Ruben Torres Boulevard between Old Alice Road and Coffee Road, with construction on the 7,600-square-foot building expected to be complete before the end of this year and the branch open to the public in the first quarter of 2023.
TNB has been operating its current Brownsville location out of leased space in Morrison Crossing shopping mall, 4345 N. Expressway, since 2021. According to TNB Chief Operating Officer Eddie Leal, a major grand opening celebration is in the works for the new Ruben Torres branch location sometime in May.
TNB traces its history back to 1920 and the chartering of the First National Bank of Mercedes, which in 2006 became Mercedes National Bank and later Texas National Bank. In addition Mercedes, the bank has branches in Edinburg, McAllen, Weslaco, Mission, Elsa and San Juan, and opened a mortgage division in 2019.
Leal said TNB had wanted to enter the Brownsville market for some time, and chose not to wait until a branch building was constructed.
"We felt we needed to set up roots quickly and opted to lease a suite at the Morrison Cross shopping center temporarily while our new facility was under construction," he said. "Given the proximity to both locations, we plan to move our entire team to our new Ruben Torres location."
The new branch will offer consumer and commercial deposits accounts, consumer and commercial loans, mortgage loans, commercial treasury services and foreign exchange services, while featuring five drive-through lanes, Leal said.
"TNB has products and services for everyone and every business in the communities we serve," he said. "We have products for savings products geared to small children, checking accounts with debit card privileges for teens, checking IRAs, and money market account for individuals. We have a long list of products and services for all types of businesses with a slew of treasury management products for any size business."
Noting that construction of the Brownsville branch has experienced only minor delays due to supply-chain issues, Leal said TNB has two other locations at different stages of completion in Edinburg and McAllen, which will help expand the bank's branch network, and also plans to build a head office in McAllen.
"We will begin constructing a four-story main headquarters facility at the corner of Robin Avenue and North 10th Street in McAllen," he said. "The headquarters will have a branch bank on the ground floor with bank operations and executive suites on three floors. We continue looking for other opportunities to grow in the (Rio Grande Valley), focusing on Cameron County."
