Chase Bank Applies for First St. Louis Location, Building Design Rejected

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -- It looks like a heavyweight is about to enter the St. Louis banking market.

We found Chase Bank has applied to build a branch -- their first in the region -- at the corner of Skinker and Delmar in the Loop.

Their design for that marquee intersection, however, will apparently need some work.

District code dictates an urban-style, two-story-or-taller building, and their design was a suburban-style, one-story. It was rejected unanimously by the Skinker-DeBaliviere Historic District Committee.

"Chase Bank is headquartered in Manhattan, you would think they'd know how to build an urban building," joked committee member Paul Hohmann, recalling a tweet on the matter.

In fact, he said the site's owner had previously shown proposals for three and five story buildings.

So is this part of a Chase invasion of the region? We reached out to spokespeople at J.P. Morgan Chase and were told there's "nothing new to share at this time."

Stifel Bank and Trust leads the St. Louis metro area with just under $14 million in deposits, according to FDIC data.

Among retail banks with customer branches, U.S. Bank is the local leader, followed by Bank of America and Commerce Bank.

Nationally, Bank of America is the largest, with Chase in second, followed by Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said in December that his bank would soon reach at least all 50 top markets in the country.

Chase's reach is already extensive. Currently, Minneapolis-St. Paul is the largest region it doesn't serve, followed by St. Louis.

Last year, Chase tested a new, app-only bank called "Finn" in St. Louis, before taking it national.