Citizens Bank has traded its old Quaker Lane storefront for a brand-new, ground-up branch on Centerville Road in Warwick, officially cutting the ribbon on the location on Sept. 18. The 3,278-square-foot branch, dubbed Centerville Place, sits at 989 Centerville Road, Unit C — on land once occupied by a TGI Friday's that closed in 2020.
The grand opening included a ribbon-cutting ceremony with remarks from local officials and Citizens executives, according to Providence Business News. The new branch features five private meeting rooms, three teller stations, an ATM in the vestibule and a drive-up interactive teller machine, and Citizens describes the space as having an advice-led design.
Citizens Bank's request to relocate its Warwick branch from 300 Quaker Lane to the Centerville Road address was approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the outlet's reporting notes. The move puts the bank's newest Rhode Island branch on a 2.35-acre property that contains two commercial building sections totaling 9,184 square feet in all.
A Donation and a Block Party to Mark the Occasion
The celebration went beyond ribbon-cutting. Citizens presented the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council with a $2,500 contribution to support its Self-Employment Program. The grand opening was followed by a community block party featuring local entrepreneurs, food and giveaways, per the same report.
Roshan Patel, a Citizens representative, said the bank wanted to create a convenient space where families, business owners and other customers could get financial guidance. Patel added that the opening reflected Citizens' commitment to Warwick through partnerships with local businesses and support for the developmental disabilities council.
Part of a Bigger Shift Away From Supermarket Branches
The Warwick flagship fits into a broader pattern across Citizens' footprint. The bank plans to close between 100 and 120 supermarket-based branches nationwide and open 50 to 60 stand-alone branches nearby that lean more heavily into advice, private banking, wealth management and small-business services, according to Banking Dive.
Those new or renovated branches typically run about 2,000 to 3,000 square feet, a sharp downsize from the nearly 7,000 square feet Citizens locations used to occupy, Banking Dive reports, with less space devoted to transactions and more set aside for one-on-one conversations between bankers and clients. Citizens CEO Bruce Van Saun has said that kind of investment in physical locations and staff could lift deposits without the cost and risk of expanding into markets where the bank doesn't already operate, telling Banking Dive that careful investment, if executed well, should create a nice lift in the deposit trajectory.
Rhode Island's Shrinking but Still-Dominant Branch Network
Citizens has been steadily trimming its Rhode Island branch count for more than a decade even as its grip on the state's deposits has barely budged. The bank had 82 offices in Rhode Island in 2014 and will have 53 following its most recent round of closures, according to a separate Providence Business News report — yet it has held onto roughly 36% of deposits in the Ocean State over that same stretch.
Much of that contraction traces back to 2020, when Citizens closed about 40 branches across Rhode Island and Massachusetts that had been located inside Stop & Shop supermarkets. More recently, Citizens Financial Group has moved to close 15 branches across six states, including a stand-alone branch at 275 Newport Ave. in East Providence. By comparison, Bank of America holds 25 offices in Rhode Island and a 20% deposit market share, far behind Citizens' footprint in the state.
