BOUNTIFUL — Friday, March 26 will be moving day for employees of Zions First National Bank’s downtown Bountiful branch.

Operations will be moved – temporarily – to the old Barnes Banking Company branch on the west side of 500 West in West Bountiful.

“We will re-open there on March 29,” said Rob Brough, a Zions executive vice president over marketing and public relations, Tuesday afternoon.

The previously announced demolition and construction of a new downtown Zions branch will begin “in earnest,” he said. The new branch will include two floors, more on-site landscaping and easier in and out drive-up bank access.

“We expect the new branch (downtown) to open at the same site as the old location in August of this year,” Brough said.

“There will be a whole new look. We’re pretty excited,” Brough said.

“We’ve been working with them (Zions) for more than a year. They brought in their plans Tuesday,” said Bountiful City Planner Aric Jensen Wednesday morning.

“It will be a complete demolition of everything on the site,” he said. “It’ll be a two-story building,” with demolition starting either March 26 or very soon after.

The northwest corner of Center and Main has been home to a bank for many decades. Jensen said the foundation of the existing building reused the foundation of a prior two story bank on the site.

“It’s an old, old building. We found some stuff we will take out and put in the (Bountiful) Museum,” Jensen said.

The current building was constructed by the old Bountiful State Bank, which was later acquired by Zions.

The current drive-up area will be parking. Building access will still be available from Main Street and the back, he said. The teller drive-up will be to the west, be completely remote. Drivers can enter off Center, drive through, exit onto 1st North.

“We are really excited, first, the fact that Zions is committing to downtown as an important area for them. Second, it gives more credence to our opinion that downtown should and can be revitalized,” Jensen said.

Meanwhile, Zions has signed short-term leases for the old Barnes buildings in Kaysville and Syracuse. Neither city has a Zions branch.