Premier Credit Union, which for 70 years has been housed within Principal Financial Group Inc., is moving out on its own.

The company has agreed to pay $1.375 million for the downtown branch of Financial Plus Credit Union, located at 800 Ninth St., and executives said they plan to close on the purchase in June. Financial Plus expects to open a new branch at 2426 Hubbell Ave. sometime this summer.

Premier plans to spend about $1 million renovating the building, adding windows to bring in more light and reshaping the interior to offer more personal service for its 12,000 members.

The move is sparked by several factors. Premier, led by Chief Executive Jim Niederhauser, wants to make banking more convenient for its customers and by so doing, attract more of them. It’s also hoping to offer more services and to climb out from under Principal’s shadow as the retirement services giant ramps up the profile of Principal Bank, which it chartered five years ago. Prior to that, Premier was the chief banking option for in-house Principal employees.

“We want this to stand out,” Niederhauser said. “It will give us some flexibility.”

Though Principal forced the move, relations between the two companies have been “fair and reasonable,” he said. “Our ideal setup would be to continue to have a branch that is separate from Principal and a branch that is located within Principal,” he said, adding that that scenario isn’t likely.

The credit union has two locations within Principal’s properties, on third floor of 711 High St., and another at 650 Eighth St. Premier plans to exit both by the fall. Premier has about $60 million in assets, making it the 13th-largest credit union in Iowa.

There is also a chance that Premier might try to broaden its membership, which is currently limited to Principal employees and their families. The thrift serves some former Principal workers who joined the credit union while they were employed at Principal.

“We’re studying the concept where we can be accessible to more people who don’t work at Principal,” Niederhauser said.

There are some barriers to customers because of Premier’s current locations. Members who aren’t Principal employees have to go through a tedious process of being escorted by security guards or by Premier workers to get to the thrift.

There are other headaches, too. Parking is more difficult to find than if the credit union had its own building and Principal restricts ts hours of operation. Premier’s current space is so small that there isn’t room for its 20 workers to hold an employee meeting. Instead, the credit union borrows conference facilities from Principal. Premier’s small conference room doubles as a storage space and lunch room.

Those concerns will disappear with the new building. The new location will also let Premier offer drive-through banking and other amenities.

But despite the new services, other concerns are likely to crop up. The biggest potential trouble is that the new location is no longer within Principal’s cluster of buildings, though it is only blocks away. The company’s employees will also have to build new skills at handling tasks such as maintenance and paying heating and cooling bills that were previously handled for them by Principal.

“Moving from leasing to owning is like renting for years and suddenly becoming a homeowner,” said Lisa Farnen, Premier’s marketing director. “It’s a whole new ballgame.”