Berkshire Bank Sets Sights On Central Mass.
Berkshire Bank has opened a commercial lending office in Westborough and is setting its sights on a crowded Central Massachusetts banking marketplace.
The Pittsfield-based bank, which recently expanded its Connecticut operations through the acquisition of Hartford-based Connecticut Bank and Trust Co., is leasing space on Lyman Street in Westborough and plans to open a branch and corporate center (possibly on Route 9) by 2013, said Patrick Sullivan, Berkshire’s executive vice president of commercial banking.
Berkshire may be new to the region’s banking industry, but its team of lenders will not be.
The bank, which has $3.9 billion in assets, has hired five lenders from Sovereign Bank who have worked together for more than 20 years in the Central Massachusetts market. Sullivan himself worked for Sovereign before Berkshire hired him several years ago.
“They’re very well-connected to the business community,” Sullivan said of the lending team.
The team will be led by James Curran, senior vice president and commercial regional manager.
Sullivan said Berkshire’s “sweet spot” is commercial loans between $5 million and $15 million. It has mainly focused on middle-market borrowers.
Berkshire knows it’s entering a competitive marketplace in which it will go up against major commercial lenders like Middlesex Savings Bank, Commerce Bank & Trust, and Avidia Bank. Westborough alone contains 11 different banks and credit unions, the most recent of which is St. Mary’s Credit Union, which this month announced plans to open a branch there.
“We compete against good banks,” he said. “I think it’s good for the market.”
Sullivan said Berkshire plans to compete on relationships and trust over pricing and terms, though those factors are also important, he said.
“I think our biggest challenge to help our team is showing we are a strong financial institution that stands behind our team and we’re committed in the long run to growing the market,” he said.
Readers may recall that Berkshire Bancorp, the bank’s parent company, put in a bid to acquire Worcester-based Commonwealth National Bank in 2009. But West Springfield-based United Financial eventually acquired Commonwealth instead.
“I think the bank learned a lot about the Worcester County marketplace at the time of the Commonwealth deal,” Sullivan said.
Eventually acquiring a bank in the area could be an option, but Sullivan said the current plan is for Berkshire is to grow organically in Central Massachusetts.
They’ve done it before, growing from one branch five years ago in the Albany, N.Y., area to 14 today.
“We grow from there and if we find a bank we can buy that adds to our growth intelligently, we can do it,” he said.
Besides putting an experienced local team in place, Berkshire also generated some goodwill this month at an open house during which it presented $2,500 checks to four area nonprofit organizations.
“We want to be an integral part of the community,” Sullivan said.
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