Bank Star One will officially close its location at 3600 S. Highway 54 on Nov. 30.
According to Rick Meriage, president of the bank, the location has been a limited service branch for more than two years. “With the rebuilding of our main branch on Horseshoe Bend Parkway and Duckhead Road, we made the branch on Highway 54 a drive-up branch only,” he said. “Most of our bank traffic goes to our facilities at either Horseshoe Bend or Hy-Vee. With car and truck traffic increasing on busy 54, we also had safety concerns with the ingress and egress of the Highway 54 location.”
Bank Star also has a location inside Hy-Vee established in 2005 and open 7 days-a-week.
Meriage indicated that the drive-up ATM will also close and likely be moved to another location after Nov. 30.
The Highway 54 location was the original bank for Bank Star One. Joseph C. Stewart, Jr., chief executive officer of the bank, purchased the building from Central Trust in 1987 and chartered a new national bank there under the name of Ozarks National Bank which opened in June, 1988. It was the only bank in Lake Ozark at the time.
In 1989, Stewart purchased the First National Bank of Callaway County in Fulton and in January of 1993 merged the Lake and the Fulton locations into a new state charter under the new name of Bank Star One.
In 1996, the bank built a branch at HH and Duckhead Roads, which was destroyed by fire in February 2006. Until reconstruction of the facility was completed in January 2007, the bank used the Highway 54 branch as its main facility.
“We’re exploring other sites in the Lake area for a third branch,” said Meriage.
Bank Star One is a subsidiary of the Festus-based BancStar Inc., a bank holding company with four bank charters, 14 branches and nearly $400 million in assets. Bank Star of the LeadBelt has six branches: Park Hills, Desloge, Leadwood, Farmington and Festus (2); Bank Star of the BootHeel has two branches: Steele and Caruthersville; Bank Star One now has four branches: Fulton, New Bloomfield, Lake Ozark and Osage Beach; and Bank Star has one branch (Pacific) and a mortgage company (Bank Star Mortgage) in Kirkwood. All branches are in Missouri.
Bank Star One is a Member FDIC and an equal housing lender.
