Denver banks on lookout for expansion locations

Denver is obviously the hot banking market in Colorado. In the city and county of Denver, there are 49 institutions operating 170 branches – all in about 155 square miles.

By comparison, Larimer and Weld counties – an area that covers 6,700 square miles – are home to 42 institutions with 158 branches, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. 2005 data

Northern Colorado is no doubt catching the eye of many Denver area banks.

It is the rapid pace of population and economic growth in Northern Colorado that attracted Colorado State Bank and Trust. The Denver-based bank recently announced it would establish a branch in Boulder with plans to continue a northward expansion.

Colorado State Bank and Trust was formed in 1908. Three years ago, the bank was merged into BOK Financial Corp., a bank holding company based in Tulsa, Okla.

The bank has no specifics on where or when it will enter Larimer or Weld, only that it is actively pursuing Northern Colorado locations.

“From my perspective, it will be built on the same model we used in Boulder,´ said Bill Sullivan, executive vice president for commercial banking in Colorado.

The Boulder branch is currently operating as a commercial lending site only, but will offer a full range of services – from real estate lending to personal banking and trusts – this summer. Sullivan said that the decision to go outside of the Denver market was less about the site than it was about the people to head up the site.

Colorado State Bank and Trust hired Marc Rosenberg as Northern Colorado regional president and Ken Bauer as vice president of commercial banking, both of whom most recently worked at Wells Fargo in Boulder.

“Once we locate the right individuals, we move quickly to get a presence in those markets,” Sullivan explained. “Having Marc in Boulder is a great first step, but obviously not the last step.”

The emphasis on the person before the location has a lot to do with the bank’s operating model.

“Our holding company recognizes that each market is very unique from the others,” Rosenberg said.

He explained that the bank doesn’t follow the one-size-fits-all approach of many larger, multi-market banks. Instead, each market develops its own local policies so that going into a Colorado State Bank and Trust branch in Northern Colorado would invoke a slightly different experience from the branch in Boulder, which would in turn differ from those in the Denver area.

“We are going to be people-driven first and then market-driven around those people,” Rosenberg said.

The bank is actively seeking bankers in Larimer and Weld counties to head up its expansion into the market here.

But they might have some competition. Several other banks are eyeing Northern Colorado.

In December, Matrix Capital Bank’s holding company, Matrix Bancorp, announced the hiring of new management staff that would help expand the institution’s reach across the Front Range. The $1.9 billion bank hired Scot Wetzel, the former president of Compass Bank’s Colorado division, as its CEO.

A press release from the company, which plans to change its name to United Western, identified Fort Collins as the northernmost of six target markets.

On May 4, the company announced Tom Ostic, formerly with Centennial Bank of the West, will head its Fort Collins branch, scheduled to open by mid-May.

Additionally, Broomfield-based Firstier Bank is nearing its entry into the market. The bank, headed by CEO Tim Wiens, is actually re-entering the market.

The Wiens family has owned farmland in Northern Colorado for generations and has been in banking consistently since 1963. Firstier had a presence in the region, with offices in Greeley, Fort Collins and Loveland, before selling to Compass Bank in 2000.

The bank re-established in Louisville in 2003 and has since expanded to four metro-area locations.

While the details of many of these plans are still solidifying, there is little doubt that Northern Colorado is continuing to be a major target for bank expansion.

Kristen S. Bastian covers the banking industry for the Northern Colorado Business Report. She can be reached at (970) 221-5400, ext. 219 or [email protected].

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