NewBridge Bank opens branch in SouthPark

Greensboro-based NewBridge Bank said Tuesday that its first full-service retail branch in Charlotte was opened in a soft launch May 1.

The 6,000-square-foot branch is in SouthPark, at 5925 Carnegie Blvd. The bank had announced plans for the branch in February, but it did not provide a specific opening date at the time.

The community bank already operates a Charlotte loan-production office focused on commercial lending and mortgage banking. NewBridge has said it plans to relocate that operation, at 6000 Fairview Road, to the full-service branch.

In an interview with the Observer earlier this year, David Barksdale, then NewBridge's chief banking officer but now its chief strategy officer, said the full-service Charlotte location will not be a standard retail branch.

"There will not be a drive-through lane, and there will not be a traditional teller counter," he said. "With the change in technology in today's banking world, and the diminishing importance of a retail branch, we’re putting a new prototype in Charlotte that will be more of an office look than a retail branch look."