Published December 2005

Two new community banks
to join Everett market
by mid-2006

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

Everett’s banking industry is growing. The city, which already includes 14 banks of local and national origin, is expected to be home to two new community banks by mid-2006.

Mark Duffy, former president and chief operating officer of Coastal Community Bank, is at the helm of one of those proposed banks, to be named Mountain Pacific Bank, while Mike Deller, former president of EverTrust Bank, will head the other, tentatively named the Bank of Everett.

“I think there is room for two banks,” said Duffy, noting that the last community bank to be formed in Everett was Coastal in 1997.

Since then, two local banks have been absorbed by other financial institutions, including American First National Bank, which was acquired by Cascade Bank, and more recently, EverTrust, which was acquired by KeyBank late last year, he said.

The need for new banking options also is being fueled by the local economy’s health, which has been growing more robust during the past year, Deller said.

“You can look not only at demographics but business announcements in the last 90 to 120 days: the aerospace business; the Navy is here to stay; we continue to see growth in the retail sector in town,” he said. “... The pie is definitely growing, so I would expect to get some of that pie as well as grab some existing market share.”

While Mountain Pacific’s start-up funds are being raised through a group of 17 founders, the Bank of Everett is being established and partly financed by national bank holding company Capital Bancorp.

The company, which has 38 affiliated banks in 11 states, including the Bank of Bellevue in Washington state, will provide 51 percent of the bank’s initial capital, with the other 49 percent being raised locally.

“I’ll be looking for investors in the community,” not passive investors but those looking to be ambassadors for the new bank, said Deller, who already has established a proposed board, comprising a “well-recognized group of local businessmen and women.”

Duffy, who began work on Mountain Pacific in May, held his first meeting of the founders’ group in August. The bank also has established a proposed board of directors that includes business and community leaders such as Gigi Burke, co-owner of Crown Distributing in Arlington; Edmonds lawyer Dick Beresford; and retired Everett banker Dale Lyski.

Paperwork to be filed with financial regulators is well under way for both banks, with Duffy saying he expects the necessary documents to be filed with the state Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. before year’s end.

Early next year, both banks plan to hold an initial stock offering.

The $12.5 million to $15 million Mountain Pacific Bank expects to raise would be the most raised in an initial stock offering by any local bank, Duffy said, and would enable the bank to service larger loans from the start as well as expand if the opportunity arose.

“I think we’d like to branch early on,” he said.

Deller said his initial sense is that the Bank of Everett stock offering would raise between $8 million and $10 million. Expansion, however, is not a possibility, as Capital Bancorp’s structure calls for stand-alone community banks, each with its own charter, instead of the usual bank branch network.

And that’s just the way Deller likes it.

“The idea is to create a community bank where myself and the officers are dependably there, and my effort is not out branching and creating more overhead,” he said.

Both banks will be focusing on the commercial banking market, including real estate lending, but are open to all facets of banking services.

“Real estate lending is where a lot of growth comes from ... but I want the bank to be well rounded,” Duffy said, adding that he plans on offering an in-house courier service.

While the Bank of Everett will have a commercial focus, “that doesn’t mean if somebody wants to come in and open a money market (account or get a) home mortgage, then we couldn’t do that as well,” Deller said.

Mountain Pacific, which plans to open in May, will be headquartered in the Everett Gateway Center now under construction at the corner of 38th Street and Broadway. With its high visibility to drivers entering or leaving Everett by way of Broadway and Interstate 5, it’s a location that is generating a lot of excitement, Duffy said.

Deller, meanwhile, said he plans to locate the Bank of Everett within the downtown core and plans to open the institution during the second quarter of 2006.

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