The Citadel mall’s east entrance is going to have a new look in the coming months. 

The old and dilapidated Joe’s Crab Shack, abandoned for several years after quietly closing, has been demolished and last week crews were onsite behind temporary fences shifting dirt and surveying the land as they prepare for construction of a Bank of America financial center. 

It will be Bank of America’s fifth full-service financial center in Colorado Springs and its eighth overall Springs location, according to the bank’s website. (A financial center is simply the company’s term for what is otherwise known as a branch, staff said.) 

The former home of Joe’s Crab Shack is an ideal location for Bank of America, giving it good visibility and easy access for current and future clients, said Kevin Rose, the consumer banking market leader for the company in Colorado. 

“It’s well suited near residential neighborhoods and local businesses,” he said. “The new location will help us better serve the community and meet growing demand for banking services in the area.” 

AHS Shack Academy, a limited liability company with a principal office address in Greenwood Village, acquired the property in 2023 for about $600,000, according to records with the El Paso County Assessor’s Office. Also in 2023, the owners sought a rezoning of the property with a project statement submitted to the city, saying “there is an opportunity for remodel or redevelopment.” The City Council approved the rezoning in May of 2024, allowing more varied uses of the land in the future, according to documents submitted to the city.

AHS Shack Academy still owns the property and Bank of America is leasing the space, staff with the bank said.

Since closing in 2022, Joe’s Crab Shack had fallen into a state of disrepair and became adorned with graffiti. Commenters on social media have wondered what the fate of the old restaurant might be. Some suggested a self-storage facility, as with the the transformation of Babies R Us on the south end of the mall. Others figured another car wash may come. 

But it will be a bank. The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department , in a social media post, called the development a “nice infill project.”  

While dirt is being moved on the property, Bank of America doesn’t have a construction timeline as of yet, Rose said. 

“As with all our financial centers, our priority is to create a welcoming, accessible financial center – one that reflects our latest design standards,” he said.