by Harmony Fisher
Highland Bank finalized new renovations to its Ely branch this March, aiming to improve customer experience while symbolizing the bank’s ongoing commitment to serving local residents and businesses.
“We love the Ely community. We’re a bank that is connected to the community,” said Highland CEO Rick Wall. “We feel we’ve got a long future there. So we reinvested in that facility so that it should be good to go for a long time.”
Highland’s upgrades focused on bringing the bank up to date with the demands of modern banking, which Wall describes as shifting toward more complex transactions than simple deposits and withdrawals.
“That’s a format we’ve used in our other facilities, and now it’s in place in Ely so a customer can come and sit with a banker instead of having to stand there while they’re doing a longer kind of transaction,” Wall said.
The branch’s new interior allows Highland to better accommodate a key customer base, one which Ely hosts in abundance: local businesses.
“When a small business customer comes to us, we need them as much as they need us,” Wall said.
Community banks like Highland often specialize in these types of business transactions and can provide staff who are solely focused on small-scale enterprises, said Wall, in addition to offering more flexibility than a large corporate bank might.
In the scenario where a locally-owned business encounters any kind of hiccup, Wall said, “The smaller banks that I’ve worked with are way more willing to listen to your concerns and try to help you work through a challenge.”
Ely’s branch manager, Lou MacMillan, began her career over three decades ago as a teller at the location. She brings further community-centered expertise.
“She knows all the businesses in town from having lived there and grown up there. That’s a big asset for the bank as well,” said Kathy Wachter, Highland’s vice president of marketing and public relations.
Highland operates out of seven locations statewide, with six of seven serving the Twin Cities region. The bank acquired the Ely facility at the end of 2022 from Boundary Waters Bank, officially folding the new branch into the Highland system in 2023 and marking its first venture outside the metro market.
“We have looked at all of our locations over the last six or seven years and made certain they were up to modern-day banking,” Wall said.
“As we acquired the Ely branch, we realized there was an opportunity to make some changes that would be better for our customers, better for staffing,” Wall continued.
Highland aims to maintain the same “general feel” across its facilities network-wide.
This philosophy guided the Ely upgrades, with lighting installations, universal banker station design and window setups mirroring other Highland locations.
The branch also implemented cash recyclers in all facilities, eliminating the traditional teller drawer system.
Project managers took advantage of Ely’s slower season to accomplish construction, launching the work at the end of summer 2025 and wrapping up in early spring 2026.
“We have been really blessed to have such a good team there who has been willing to do what it takes to have a construction project in their space and continue to work while all those changes were going on,” Wall said.
“There was a lot of movement in the branch. That team has done a great job of keeping our customers serviced while brushing dust off their keyboard every morning when somebody was in there, hammering at the construction site,” Wall continued.
The Ely branch celebrated their grand reopening during the week of March 24, with an open house event as well as a ribbon cutting ceremony.
“I hope that the customers are pleased with the renovations,” Wall said, “We’ll have more efficiency in how we can serve them, and it will be more comfortable for them to work in the new environment. I hope they also see that it indicates a commitment to continuing to be a part of the community.”
