HistoricOmaha

Omaha World Herald
Published Friday March 31, 2006

BY STEVE JORDON

Dundee Bank has a president, banners in the windows and even loan customers.

Now the office at 5015 Underwood Ave. just needs a little time to refinish the original wood floors, brick wall and tin ceiling and install modern furniture, fixtures and banking equipment. It plans to open in June.

Jeff Royal, a former First National Bank loan officer, is in charge of the new bank, a branch of Security State Bank in Ansley, Neb.

Royal, a Dundee resident himself, now is a stockholder in Security State, which is owned by William Brush of Ansley.

A former Omahan, Brush had the idea of opening an office in the historic Omaha neighborhood. Packers Bank, which became part of what now is Wells Fargo Bank, once had an office on a nearby corner, Brush said.

“We’re just bringing back to life what was here before,” he said. “Dundee’s a great neighborhood. We think it’s going to grow, and there’s a definite demand.”

The bank is a tenant in a building owned by the Architecture Offices, which restored its exterior to how it looked when it housed a grocery operated by the grandfather of Warren Buffett, the Omaha financier.

Omaha.com: Dundee Bank lends a sense of nostalgia