Centennial muscles into market with Millennium

Centennial Bank — including a local downtown location at 2500 Broadway in Boulder — just got a little more muscular.

Centennial Bank’s Denver-based parent holding company CIC Bancshares Inc. recently completed a merger with Edwards-based Millennium Bancorp Inc.

The combined operation has about $400 million in assets and nine branches, including one in Boulder. Centennial Bank is the moniker of the combined operation.

Longtime local banker Charles Holmes is at the helm of the local Boulder branch, which opened in February. His sweet spot is making small-business loans of $500,000 to $3 million.

Before the merger, the bank reported about $140 million in assets.

Congrats to Coleman

Congratulations go to Joe Coleman, who is now the JPMorgan Chase & Co. business banking market manager for Colorado, overseeing 55 Chase bankers around the state and close to 100,000 small-business customers.

Coleman’s previous title was area manager for Northern Colorado business banking and senior vice president for Boulder County and the region.

Coleman is bullish on small-business lending across the state. He’ll get to watch it for now from his downtown Boulder office at 1301 Canyon Blvd.

Summer lending activity has been strong — up 28 percent in Colorado in the second quarter, Coleman said. Chase does not release specific revenue figures.

“There’s increased optimism in the business community and strong outreach from our bankers in being able to convert new lending opportunities into booked loans,” Coleman said.

Companies in Boulder County’s well-known outdoor-recreation industry have been a driver of the increased loan activity, as have some medical companies and some owner-occupied new construction, Coleman said.

“Individual companies are seeing stronger balance sheets,” Coleman said, “which translates into a willingness to invest in their businesses.”

‘Healthy’ funding

Natural and organic food companies in the region have a new $2.2 million pot of cash to tap.

Companies can get small-business loans of up to $250,000 each from the new Colorado Fresh Food Financing Initiative program, said Ceyl Prinster, president and chief executive officer at the Colorado Enterprise Fund, a Denver-based funding group that’s done quite a bit of work in the Boulder area in the past.

The idea is to loan more money to local small farmers, as well as the farmers’ markets and food cooperatives where they sell their food, so that more fresh food can get out to low-income customers, Prinster said. Such enterprises can come to her agency for help if they don’t qualify for traditional bank loans, Prinster said. Small grocers also are being targeted, she said.

“The whole program is about improving food access,” Prinster said.

The Colorado Enterprise Fund also has money available in the form of working capital, inventory loans, equipment loans and commercial real-estate loans.

SBA update

Loans continue to flow to local companies from the federal Small Business Administration.

Boulder County companies received about $13 million in SBA loans in the past three months or so, based on statistics from the state office.

Mornings with Charlie

Finally, a few Silicon Valley Bank bankers in Broomfield now are working in Boulder on Wednesday mornings — at the co-working office space Scrib at 2060 Broadway, to be exact.

Bankers can help entrepreneurs develop financial models for new companies or introduce them to new potential investors, said Charlie Kelly, head of the central division of the bank’s venture capital services team in Broomfield.

“Working with Scrib, we will have the opportunity to be there when inspiration strikes,” Kelly said in a press statement.

Silicon Valley Bank is the Santa Clara, California-based bank subsidiary and commercial banking operation of SVB Financial Group (Nasdaq: SIVB) in London. In Broomfield, eight people work in the division headquarters, while another 50 or so support clients across the country.

What are the target industries for these bankers? Across the globe, Silicon Valley Bank does financial work for technology companies, life-sciences companies, clean technology companies (the label given to alternative energy companies) and venture-capital companies. Also featured on the company website are “premium wine businesses.”

Cheers!

Beth Potter can be reached at 303-440-1944 or bpotter@bcbr.com.

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