At a time when consumer confidence in banks is low, the building of new branches can help reinforce the image that a credit union is not only stable but focused on growth.

"Our personal experience is that financial institutions don't develop relationships, it happens when members speak with staffers who are making that personal connection. We see the branch component as the physical touch point of the strategy for building awareness that can be very difficult if not impossible to do online or through just a Web-based format," said Jim Haack, CEO of design-build firm Momentum. "The future of the branch is healthy and institutions looking for that kind of deeper market credibility and capability are going to need to provide multichannel access to meet members' expectations of being able to do business through the channel that suits them best at any given time."

According to Haack, the key to creating a facility for the long term is going beyond the upfront investment in construction and assessing what the total cost of operations will be. That means taking into consideration not just the merchandising, equipment and energy costs but also current and future staff salaries and benefits. Taking a quantitative and qualitative approach, Haack said the total cost analysis can be divided into three parts, first an assessment of how staffers function in current facilities and identifying areas of efficiency or inefficiency. Then looking at growth target expectations to define space needs, and finally utilizing industry data to benchmark growth and design accordingly.