Work continues to bring a bank back to Magnet

MAGNET – Work is continuing on a new bank branch planned for a southwest Cedar County community.

Brunswick State Bank’s new location will be situated inside the former Magnet State Bank building at 215 Main St. in downtown Magnet and is set to open during the spring of 2024.

“As of right now, the project is on schedule to be completed in early June, but as we all know, things can change,” said Eric Wynia of Wausa, a vice president for Brunswick State Bank. “The weather, as of late, has been a tremendous help in keeping things on track.”

Kaleb Finch from Finch Contracting of Orchard – which is handling the work on the old Magnet bank building – has the new addition to the north pretty well constructed, wrapped and ready for the next step, which is the installation of the brick/stucco to the expansion.

“Once that is underway and ultimately completed, we feel the project will really start to take shape,” Wynia said.

The entire interior of the old brick bank building also is going to be renovated as part of the project.

“Now the focus will shift into the existing building and working on that to try and capture the original feel of the bank from the past with the technology and upgrades of today,” Wynia said.

Upon initial inspection, the original bank building’s existing floor had to be completely removed and rebuilt.

“Unfortunately, that meant we had to lose the existing tile that was currently in there,” Wynia said. “The existing tile wasn’t able to be salvaged, but we’re going to try and recreate that same look, pattern and layout as close to the original tile floor as possible.

“Much of the existing wood flooring was salvaged, so we’re hoping to be able to refurbish that and reuse that same wood back into the same layout from the original bank,” he said. “We’re really trying to honor as much of the original layout of the historical bank as we possibly can.” The Magnet State Bank has not existed since the late 1920s, and the old bank building has since been used as a cafe and a residence over the years.

Brunswick State Bank bought the location in August. The Magnet structure is about 1,000 square feet in size, with the new addition to be slightly smaller than that.

Once the old Magnet building is renovated and open for business as a bank branch, people will walk through the front door and into a lobby area, with the teller line off to the right.

In addition to the lobby area and teller line, there will be an office located inside the existing bank building and a second office, a break room, a kitchenette and restrooms situated inside the new addition.

The new Magnet branch will be Brunswick State Bank’s third location, in addition to its main one in Brunswick and another one in Winnetoon.

“As of right now, we don’t have an open house scheduled as we want to verify that the date of completion won’t be delayed,” Wynia said. “We’re certainly planning on having an open house – it’s just a matter of when.

“BSB and all of our employees are very excited to say that we do have full staff hired and ready to go once we open the doors in the next few months,” he said.