First Federal announced that Troy Wills will be the market area manager for its new Bellingham branch. The new bank branch is scheduled to open winter 2015 at 1270 Barkley Boulevard, next to Banner Bank and Whatcom Educational Credit Union in the Barkley District.

Wills will serve as the branch manager for the Bellingham branch and will oversee future growth or additional branches in the area, said Jeanine Lee, First Federal’s marketing manager.

Most recently Wills was the vice president/branch manager at Peoples Bank in Bellingham. Before that, Wills worked at Horizon Bank and Washington Mutual in Bellingham, according to a press release from First Federal.

Wills serves on the executive committee for the Bellingham Whatcom Chamber of Commerce and is a chair on the Whatcom Community College Foundation board.

First Federal, which is based in Port Angeles,  has a lending center at 1313 E. Maple St. in Bellingham. The loan center will move into the new bank building when it opens, said Dwight Jeppson, commercial loan officer at the Bellingham loan center.

Lee said the bank will feature an interactive teller machine in a vestibule at the new branch. Customers can use the machine after hours to interact with a live teller at the bank’s Port Angeles contact center.  The interactive teller machine will allow the branch to have longer hours, as the Port Angeles contact center is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Lee said.

Four to six employees will staff the bank, Lee said.

First Federal has nine full-service bank locations, most of which are in Clallam and Jefferson counties on the Olympic Peninsula.