Weird, I thought retail branch was one of the reasons TIAA bought Everbank to begin with.
It has always been my understanding that Everbank was built around Internet banking with customers nationwide. The area branches (only 11, per their web site, all between here and Orlando) were a byproduct of them buying various banks to accumulate deposits and/or other financial assets and maybe to help give them a little street cred by having a physical bank someone could see vs. a virtual bank in the cybersphere. Currently, the branches are probably a mere decimal point to TIAA.
With TIAA's greater recognition and longevity, their huge size and greater national reach and the ongoing evolution of Internet banking, the branches were probably expendable at this point. Not unusual as even the more branch-oriented mega banks are closing branches like crazy.