PNC Bank to Open in April

Shorewood’s stretch of North Oakland Avenue is adding yet another bank.

PNC Bank will open its doors April 11, making it the latest addition of banks competing in the busy business district.

“We are in the marketplace to win it; that is the bottom line,” PNC spokesperson Saul Boscan said. “We want to win in Milwaukee.”

PNC Bank has set up shop at 4231 N. Oakland Ave., the property previously occupied by Hollywood Video until 2009 and remained vacant until PNC moved in months ago.

“The upgrade of the building I think was appropriate,” Jim Plaisted, executive director of Shorewood’s business improvement district, said.

Although there are already several banks with at least one branch on Shorewood’s segment of Oakland Ave., including North Shore,  TCF and Wells Fargo Bank, Plaisted sees the new bank as a positive development for Shorewood residents, allowing them to shop at competing banks that are conveniently close by.

“Do you want the entire street lined with banks and no retail shops and things like that?” said Plaisted. “Well no, but that doesn’t appear to be what’s occurring here.”

Currently, PNC branches are concentrated on Milwaukee’s south and west side. The closest of these branches to Shorewood is downtown at 411 E. Wisconsin Ave., more than three miles away.

PNC’s expansion seeks to set up branches on the North side of Milwaukee where it is weakest, especially in the North Shore neighborhoods. 

“We’re staffing the Shorewood branch with people who live in the area… so, we’re very familiar with the marketplace” area Business Banking Manager Heather Nill sad. “We are also trying to mimic that model in the upcoming branches that are going to be opening later this year and next year.”

In addition to Shorewood, PNC plans to open branches in Glendale, Fox Point, Whitefish Bay and two locations in Milwaukee along East Capitol Drive. In total, they plan to open nine branches this year and more next year.

PNC is currently the sixth largest bank in the Milwaukee area, and the new branches are part of a plan that they hope will push them into the Milwaukee’s three largest banks within the next few years.

This expansion is the most ambitious move that PNC has made in Milwaukee since it acquired National City Bank in 2008 and completed the transition of National City’s locations in Milwaukee last June.