Huntington’s Buckeye Road branch will close in February, despite lobbying by residents against the move. But there is a chance that the closure could be temporary, a bank spokesman wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland.

“We will work with the City of Cleveland in the event actions can be taken to address the safety concerns for our customers and employees,” wrote Kris Dahl, regional communications manager for Huntington. “After six months, we will assess if there have been sufficient improvements to safety in this area.” 

Last fall, the bank announced that the branch at 11623 Buckeye Road in Cleveland’s Buckeye–Shaker neighborhood would permanently close Feb. 9. Officials said they were concerned about the safety of their employees due to crime in the area, some of which had spilled onto bank property. For example, some residents interviewed for this story said bullets from a shootout several months ago hit the branch. Dahl declined to give specifics about violent crime that had affected the branch. 

Huntington said keeping branch open is too risky

Keep Huntington on Buckeye, a committee of area residents, including those living near the branch and in neighborhoods not far away in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, lobbied for the branch to stay open for 90 days after Feb. 9. The committee wanted bank officials to use that time to work with public officials and the community to devise a safety plan.

“Unfortunately, due to the unacceptable risk to our customers and employees, we cannot leave this branch open for an additional 90 days as requested by some members of the community, and it will close on Feb. 9,” Dahl wrote.

Huntington’s presence won’t totally disappear on that date, Dahl said. The ATM will remain open. There is a chance that Huntington-sponsored programs, such as those focused on home repair and entrepreneurship for area residents, could operate there or elsewhere in the area. 

Activists see partial victory in bank’s willingness to discuss safety plan

Robert Render and Charles Bromley, both members of Keep Huntington on Buckeye, view bank officials’ decision to explore a safety plan as a partial victory.

“They’ve extended an olive branch in their willingness to work with the city [on a safety plan],” Bromley said. ”I have to say that in all the years I’ve dealt with organizing against branch closings, this is the first time I’ve seen an olive branch from a bank.”

He said credit is due to Keep Huntington on Buckeye. He said their actions against the branch closing included contacting the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, whose duties include regulating national banks such as Huntington, to register their concerns. 

Render, a branch customer, said Keep Huntington on Buckeye intends to make sure the bank and the city are sincere about developing a safety plan.

“Crime has always been on Buckeye going back to the 1970s,” he said. “We now have an opportunity to finally address this problem. We need institutions that are going to invest in making this a better community, not those that are going to run away.”

Render and others said they can’t give up the fight because the branch closure is yet another example of a financial institution abandoning an urban community.

Dahl said fleeing is not Huntington’s intention.

“We remain committed to serving our customers in Buckeye, and we sincerely appreciate their help in seeking a solution that will meet the community’s needs,” he wrote.

Residents want Huntington to be a partner in revitalizing Buckeye–Shaker

Several members of Keep Huntington on Buckeye interviewed said they believe the area is approaching the early stages of revitalization. They want Huntington to be a partner in the change. The committee says that the bank’s safety plan needs to be in sync with a growing effort to improve the area. Such efforts include the resurfacing and other improvements to Buckeye Road, as well as nonprofit organizations’ upcoming redevelopment studies. 

Committee member Tamara Chappell, who banks at the branch, isn’t convinced that high crime is the true motivating factor for closing the branch.

“We’ve had violence in the U.S. Capitol, not just in Cleveland,” she said. “I think that Huntington is using crime and violence as an excuse. They just want to leave.”

Committee member Greg Groves agreed that concerns about crime shouldn’t be allowed to drive the decision to close a branch.

 “Huntington has never expressed that the Buckeye branch is an unprofitable location,” he said. “If the finances don’t justify leaving the area, It points to a disinvestment.”

Residents say closing a bank branch hurts a community

Mary Boyle, a former county commissioner and state representative, said other banks have closed their branches in the area over the years, including one where she had banked. Boyle said she intentionally opted against moving her account to a suburban branch.

“That’s when I took my little account to the Huntington bank on Buckeye,” she said. “Now Huntington is doing exactly the same thing as the other banks.“

Bromley said closing a branch can cause a community financial harm.

“Branches are a vital economic wheel in the neighborhood because they can do three things,” he said. “They lend, they invest and they service a community. When they leave a community, all those three things go away.”

Keep Huntington on Buckeye circulates petitions, enlists public officials to save branch

Keep Huntington on Buckeye worked to stop the branch from closing by directly contacting regulators, lobbying bank officials, circulating petitions and enlisting the help of elected officials. 

Committee members say they already have collected more than 700 signatures in support of keeping the bank open, and that this number continues to grow. Supporters also started an online petition. 

Council President Blaine Griffin, whose ward includes the portion of Buckeye Road where the branch is located, is one of the public officials the committee contacted. Griffin held a meeting last week with Huntington officials, committee members, nonprofits and other community stakeholders.

Griffin said he is more concerned about Huntington withdrawing services from the area than he is about the loss of a physical location.

“Are you able to try to have unique products to help people repair their homes?” he said. “Are you able to help with down payment assistance? Are you going to make sure that no matter what, that this community continues to get served?”

Griffin said he is continuing to discuss such topics with Huntington officials. He is also concerned about a vacant building should the branch stay closed. Since the bank has a few years left on its lease, Griffin wants to find out what “alternative services” could go in the space if it is no longer a branch. He said such services could include providing financial literacy education.

The home repair, entrepreneurial and other programs Huntington is exploring for the area could potentially address some of Griffin’s concerns.

A sign on the branch’s drive through window alerts customers to the upcoming closing. It directs them to use branches on Chester Avenue in University Circle and Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights after Feb. 9. 

Committee member Meg Weingart sees the closing as short-sighted. She is part of the Morelands Group, a nonprofit focused on the more than 80 apartment buildings in the nearby Shaker Square area. She said branch customers and potentially new customers live there. 

Being a customer isn’t Render’s only connection to the branch. The East 128th Street Block Club Association, of which he has been a member for years, also has accounts there.

Every time he looks at the sign in the drive through window, he has the same reaction.

“I can literally walk to the Buckeye branch or ride my bike there,” Render said. “Why would I want to go to Coventry or Chester to do my banking?”