BankNewport featured in Providence Business News

July 30, 2007

BankNewport expands west to South County

Providence Business News

By Natalie Myers, PBN Staff Writer

 

Seven years ago, BankNewport expanded outside of Newport County for the first time in its 188-year history when it opened two branches, one in Bristol and one in Warren, within two months of one another.

 

Now BankNewport is ready for a second expansion, this time into South County. The bank has plans to open one branch in North Kingstown by the end of October and one branch in Narragansett sometime next year.

 

“We’ve seen some nice deposit growth in Bristol County,” said Bob Maddock, executive vice president of community banking for BankNewport. “So we’re optimistic to see that in South County as well.”

 

The bank already has a loan presence in the area, he said. It opened a loan production office in Wakefield in 1997 and has been generating mortgages and home equity loans as well as commercial loans since then.

 

Part of what drove BankNewport’s expansion into South County was feedback from customers about having a deposit facility for loan payments, Maddock said. And having a significant demographic that commutes to Aquidneck Island for work also helped.

 

Maddock said the bank put a lot of time into planning its entry into South County. It started looking for the right location in North Kingstown three years ago and finally found one in the Stop & Shop plaza at the intersection of Routes 4 and 102.

 

What’s more, the grocery store agreed to build the 4,500-square-foot branch to BankNewport’s specifications and lease it to the bank.

 

“It’s one of our larger branch offices because we feel it’s important to establish more of an anchor operation,” Maddock said.

 

The branch will include four drive-through lanes, including one ATM lane and one walk-up ATM. The branch also will include extra office space to accommodate consolidation of the Wakefield office.

 

It will be BankNewport’s 11th branch and will employ about 15 people.

 

Maddock said the branch is “very significant for BankNewport” because “we’ve had a long history in Rhode Island, and it shows we’re here for the long haul.” The bank employs 250 people and has about $1 billion in assets.

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