Wamu Vamooses from The Fordham

We're Washington Mutual customers, so imagine our surprise when we found this the other day:

The Wamu branch on the ground floor of The Fordham is closed.  We knew all along that the merger with Chase would mean some Wamu branches would be closed.  We were prepared for that.  In fact, Chase helped us prepare by sending us a letter listing which branches would be closed in our neighborhood.  This one was not on the list.

The sad part is that it's another empty hole in an already hard to fill retail corridor.  The gravitational pull of nearby North Michigan Avenue is so great that it's hard to get any businesses to move onto Wabash that aren't specifically catering to neighborhood residents.  And there's already a deli, a nail salon, and a dry cleaner on the block.

For those of you who are also Washington Mutual clients, the next nearest locations are up near Viagra Triangle, or on Michigan Avenue south of the Chicago River.

Quickie: Chase-Wamu Fallout

The consolidation of Chase and Washington Mutual retail locations has begun.

In the downtown area, the Washington Mutual branch at 501 North Milwaukee Avenue is going away.  Wamu customers are being directed to the Chase branch at 330 North Desplaines Street.

The Milwaukee Avenue Wamu closes March 6, 2009.