THE BANKING PICTURE CONTINUES TO CHANGE

Thanks to the merger of SouthTrust and Wachovia, 105 branches across Florida will be shuttered as of June. Of that number, 17 will be in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, with four more in Polk County. Wachovia is saying that the 4,300 jobs that will be cut as a result will be done through staff attrition and that branch employees at affected branches will be offered positions at other locations.

The branches that will be closed are:

BRANDON:
110 West Bloomingdale Avenue
510 Oakfield Drive

CLEARWATER:
2140 Gulf-To-Bay Boulevard
28163 U.S. Highway 19, North

LAKELAND:
4400 South Florida Avenue*
6108 U.S. Highway 98, North

LARGO:
13175 Walsingham Road*

PALM HARBOR:
34650 U.S. Highway 19, North*

PINELLAS PARK
7600 U.S. Highway 19, North
8851 U.S. Highway 19, North
4501 Mainlands Boulevard*
6700 66th Street, North

ST. PETERSBURG:
9400 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street, North*

TAMPA:
5144 East Busch Boulevard
7919 Gunn Highway
201 East Kennedy Boulevard*
4240 West Kennedy Boulevard*
14802 North Dale Mabry Highway*
19440 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard*

WINTER HAVEN:
448 Cypress Gardens Boulevard*
1483 Sixth Street, Northwest*

* - Originally a FloridaFirst branch, then became a SouthTrust operation after it's acquisition of FloridaFirst.