End of the line for Citibank at the Rockville Centre station?

Customers of Citibank’s Station Plaza branch, at 41 Front St., learned last week that it will close on April 27 and that their accounts will automatically be transferred to the Citibank branch at 297 Merrick Road. Despite the “seamless process” promised in a letter signed by Angel Benitez, the Station Plaza branch manager, many of the bank’s customers say they are not happy about the news, and they hope to do something about it.

Hundreds have already stopped by Bialystok and Bloom, a café on Clinton Avenue, around the corner from the bank, to sign and comment on a petition to keep the branch open. The shop’s proprietor, Rahul Handa, who banks at the branch, started the petition on Jan. 25. He said he intends to forward the signatures and comments to an executive at Citibank’s Long Island City headquarters in a few weeks. Handa said that a previous decision to close the branch had been reversed by a petition drive spearheaded by the Front Street Bakery, another neighbor, and he hopes a petition will work again this time.

“After a careful evaluation, we decided to consolidate our two branches in Rockville Centre,” Michele Imbasciani, Citibank’s market president, said in a written statement. “We feel the consolidation will result in better convenience and service for customers. The consolidation will enhance our suite of services, which will include Small Business Banking, Citigold, Mortgage and Citi Personal Wealth Management Services — on top of our core banking and ATM services.

“Our priority is to make this transition easy for clients,” Imbasciani added. “We greatly value our relationship with the Rockville Centre community. We look forward to serving our customers and the community with excellence and value.”

“Whoever is making this decision doesn’t understand the dynamics of Rockville Centre,” said Handa, who lives in the village. “The small businesses and people living north of Sunrise Highway see Sunrise as the Great Wall of China. Once you cross Sunrise, it … adds a half hour.”

“At least two generations of my family have used that branch since the 1940s for both business and personal banking,” said Benjamin Meyer, a lifetime Rockville Centre resident. “First it was the Nassau County National Bank, then the Franklin National Bank, EAB and then Citi. This branch is very convenient — it’s a small, family bank. It will be very inconvenient going over to Merrick Road.”

Handa also noted the convenience of the branch, across the street from the Rockville Centre Long Island Rail Road station, and said that its staff members go out of their way to offer a personal touch. “The days of having a relationship with a bank are long gone,” he said, “but this is one location where you get that — they’re there to help you.”

Handa said that he and his fellow petitioners were concerned about the jobs of the managers and tellers in the closing branch, although a spokeswoman for the bank told the Herald on Monday that several staff members would be moved to the other Rockville Centre branch, and all others would be “reassigned to other branches within a close geographic area.”

“When corporate headquarters decides to close something, they’ve known about it usually for six months to a year,” said Mayor Fran Murray. “And when you speak to them and ask them to reverse the decision, it usually falls on deaf ears. But this is a prime location that I believe any business would love to get their hands on, and I don’t think it will stay empty for long. I think that Citibank will miss out on market share.”

“What purpose does it serve to get rid of a location that everyone relies on?” said Handa, predicting that many people who bank at the branch, and use its new paperless ATMs, would leave Citibank for other banks in the village that offer comparable services. “The church, Village Hall, the train — [they] draw more traffic here than in other areas of the village, and this is the only bank in the area. It makes no sense.”

He added that an empty storefront in a highly visible location would be an eyesore. “I just think it’s wrong,” he said, “and obviously other people think that way, too.”