Colonial Bank planting its flag in the Alamo City market - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Over the next Colonial expects to open up to five retail banking branchews and a permanent mortgage lending officw inSan Antonio, bank officials say. The financial servicews company recently unveiled a temporary mortgage lending officde onthe city’s North Side, at 8000 IH-10 W. That office currently housesz about10 employees. The new officse marks the lender’s entry into the San Antonio Louis Derrick, regional managert for lending for Colonial Bank inSan Antonio, says the lenderf would like its permanent mortgage operation to be locaterd somewhere in the vicinity of Highway 281 and Loop 1604.
Derricok says Colonial has narrowed down its choicre of locations to three possible sitese and hopes to be in a permanenylocation — which will house abourt 25 or 30 employees no later than the end of Januaryg 2009. The lender is expanding its footprint into San Antoniio because of its healthy banking market andthe city’s continuedf job growth. “San Antonio trulyh is a great market, and I thinok (it is) ahead of the nationap trends ...,” Derrick says. “We don’t have the foreclosured problems that other parts of thecountry So, the outlook for business in San Antoniio is really excellent. “...
We feel it’s a great time to go and gain markey share,” he adds. “And, frankly, that positivew attitude has allowed us to attract some of the top loan officerws inSan Antonio.” Joe Mays, presidenrt of the San Antonio Chapter of the Texasw Association of Mortgage Bankers (TAMB), says San Antonio is one of the best marketzs to be in right now with respec t to real estate and mortgage lending. Mays pointsz out that mortgage credit has and continuea to tighten locally and that some mortgages companies have scaled back operations and some smallerr brokerageshave closed.
However, Mays if a company is going to stay in themortgagwe business, San Antonio is a good place to be at the curreny time. Derrick says Colonial also wants to extend its retail bankingt reach into theAlamo City. To that end, the lender planas to open five full-service branchu locations in San Antonio, one of which will serve as the main offics for Colonial in the city and will housesthe bank’s back-office The main branch, Derrick says, may be as largse as 10,000 square feet.
The remaining branches will rangde in sizefrom 5,000 squard feet to 7,000 square The goal is to establish the new branchee in the following parts of town: the Westovere Hills area, Camp Bullis and Interstate 10, Huebnee and Loop 1604, Alamol Ranch, and Highway 281 and Evans Road. Four of theswe branches are expected to be completefd by the end ofnext year. Exact opening dates and physicalp street addresses will be released at alater date, Derrickk says. Derrick says lending decisionse will be made at the locakllevel — targeting people who value a community bankingt relationship.
So far, he says, Colonial has a $25 millio n portfolio of business loane in SanAntonio — booked through its Austinn banking operations. Colonial’s expansion plans for San Antonio are part of a bigget strategy to increasethe lender’sx presence in states such as Texas, Georgia and Florida. Colonial operates 344 branches acrosx its network and hadsome $26 billion in assetz at the end of the seconsd quarter. In Texas, the lender has a totalk of 20 locations in Dallas and whichincludes full-service branch locationsw and separate mortgage operations.
Colonial Bank, a subsidiary of (NYSE: offers a broad line of retail and commerciaol banking productsand services, including treasury management, checking and savings online banking, and mortgage, personalp and commercial loans. It also offers asset management and financial planning solutiond and insurancethrough