CHAMPAIGN — Busey Bank plans to replace its branch on West Springfield Avenue in Champaign with a new building.

The new office will be on the same property as the old one, but will be located west of the existing building, said Don Schlorff, executive vice president of the bank.

The existing building will remain operational until the new one is finished, and then the old one will be torn down, he said.

"Given good weather, we hope to be done in the July time frame — maybe as early as late June," Schlorff said.

Schlorff said the office — at the southeast corner of Springfield Avenue and Country Fair Drive — is one of Busey's busiest in Champaign-Urbana in terms of transactions.

It dates back to 1978, when it opened as Champaign National Bank's BankWest facility.

"It was a modular building originally, with two sections bolted together," Schlorff said. "It's been there 30-some years. It's just not laid out to best serve our customer needs."

When finished, the new office should be about 3,500 square feet and offer more lobby space, more natural light and more security features than the old one, he said.

The project will be done in phases, with a temporary parking lot to be built on the north to free up space for construction.

"It'll be crowded on the property for a while," Schlorff said, but plans should allow the office, drive-up lanes and automated teller machine to remain open during construction.

Once the existing office is torn down, that space will be used for parking.

Drive-up teller lanes will remain on the east side of the property, a little south of where they are now.

When complete, the facility will have four drive-up lanes and two ATMs. One ATM will be in line with the drive-up lanes, while the other will be in the southeast corner of the parking lot, Schlorff said.

Although a building permit recently listed the cost of the project at $1.5 million, Schlorff said the total cost — including equipment and furnishings — will probably be in the $1.9 million to $2 million range.

RATIO Architects, which designed the renovation of Busey's main office in downtown Champaign, is the architectural firm for the West Springfield Avenue project. Broeren Russo Construction is the general contractor.