Fidelity Homestead plans Dutchtown branch

Fidelity Homestead Savings Bank has purchased just over an acre of land in Dutchtown, with plans to open a branch in the second half of 2011. The New Orleans-based bank paid $650,000 for the tract on La. Highway 73, between Interstate 10 and Airline Highway, in a deal that closed Tuesday. Mark Hebert of Kurz & Hebert represented Corporate Realty, which sold the land, while Bennett Davis represented Fidelity. Fidelity plans to build a 3,500- to 4,000-square-foot, full-service branch on the site, a bank spokeswoman says. Between five to eight people will work at the branch. This will be Fidelity’s third location in the Capital Region; in July, the bank bought land for a branch at Perkins Road and Bluebonnet Boulevard that it plans to open at the end of 2010. Fidelity was interested in moving into Dutchtown because of the increasing number of young professionals and families that live in Ascension Parish.—Timothy Boone