Community celebrates Commerce opening

When Commerce Bank opened their doors on their newest store in downtown Flushing, it was more than just their executives that turned out for the festivities.
Community members flocked to grand opening celebration at 38-19 Main Street - the site of the new Queens Crossing building - to enjoy free hot dogs and ice cream, listen to music and watch dances from Chinese and Korean groups and a receive host of other free gifts and surprises.
“This [location] will be packed for the next month,” said Gregory Braca, President of the New York City Market for Commerce Bank, during a packed ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, September 5.
The Flushing location, which is the 63rd branch Commerce has opened in New York City in the past six years, will include many of the Commerce mainstays like seven-day branch banking, extended hours, community murals and greeters at doors, but it will also include in-store signs in Chinese, Korean, and English, a multilingual staff and 4,900 safe deposit boxes.
“We have been anxiously awaiting this opening,” said Braca, who said that plans for this location had been in the works for a number of years.
Although the downtown Flushing area is already home to a number of mainstream recognizable banks, Braca said that didn’t scare Commerce away, but rather increased their desire to compete in the area.
It already seemed popular with the community as hundreds of people, including a host of neighborhood leaders, took time out of their Friday to stop by the new store and wish the Commerce officials well.
Meanwhile, as customers visit the branch, they will likely recognize some friendly faces as Commerce has worked with a number of community representatives when planning the store and has some local employees, according to Braca.