What is the best way for banks to draw members of the community through the front door?

It’s a question they have been grappling with as the state’s ultra-competitive industry works to get customers to not only identify with their bank, but pluck each other’s customers.

Wainwright Bank thinks it knows the answer. Next month, the $929-million commercial institution is taking a gamble on the idea that a bank in a coffee shop (or a coffee shop in a bank, depending on a visitor’s priority) will bring in those sought-after new clients.

The bank has leased space on the ground floor of The Carruth, an apartment-condo complex under construction in Dorchester’s Ashmont Hill neighborhood, directly across from the Ashmont Red Line MBTA stop.

Flat Black Coffee, a six-year-old company with two other Boston locations whose founders live in the neighborhood, will share the space and the lease. They plan to open for business in late September.

“Picture a cylinder in the center of the building. On one side will be the tellers, and on the other, the baristas,” said Wainwright spokesman Steve Young.

When the bank closes, security gates will separate the two spaces, but the coffee shop will stay open. On-site ATMs will remain available to customers.

Young said the location is ideal for 21-year-old Wainwright, which now has 10 branches in and around Boston, noting that the bank had been wanting to open a branch in Dorchester, since at least 400 of its customers live in the neighborhood.

In addition, he said, 17,000 commuters pass through Ashmont station daily.

The new branch will have nearby competition in Mt. Washington Bank, whose new branch on Talbot Avenue is about a half-mile away, as well as Citizens Bank, Sovereign Bank and Bank of America.

But, Young said, Wainwright believes the coffee shop will draw the locals into its space – and hopes it will bring in new customers.

(Coffee) Bean Counters

Flat Black co-owner Jeff Chatlos, an attorney who quit his practice to open his first shop in Dorchester’s Lower Mills neighborhood in 2002, said Flat Black was interested in talking with Wainwright because their business values are a good fit.

“We promote sound business practices and ecologically sound [coffee-growing methods],” he said.

Chatlos said when The Carruth’s developer mentioned “a socially conscious bank” was interested in partnering with the coffee shop, he knew right away which bank it was – and he and his business partners were interested.

Young said it took a collaboration with a high-end coffee shop such as Flat Black to seal the deal with The Carruth, since the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which reviews major redevelopment and construction projects in the city, originally wanted a restaurant to go in the space the bank and coffee shop will now occupy.

Both are hoping their venture will be a hit.

“Even the New York Times and Wall Street Journal were writing articles three years ago about how coffee shops create community,” Chatlos said.

And he thinks the combination with the bank has a good chance of success.

“I know that, for me, it’s a pain in the neck to get to the bank,” he said. “But if the place where I got my morning coffee was also my bank, think how easy that would be.” n