Medway Cooperative Bank sees the nearby suburban communities as a great way of expanding and will soon open branches in Bellingham and Mendon, effectively doubling its small footprint.
The expansion plans come on the heels of the bank’s very healthy growth this year: the bank is on pace to record $152 million in assets for the first half of 2008, already surpassing 2007’s total of $136 million. Medway currently has its main branch and a satellite branch open to the public in Medway High School.
Growth Spurt
The suburbs around Medway, where the bank began in 1915, are growing, and the bank sees communities like Bellingham and Mendon as ways to grow the institution, according to John S. Hamilton, Medway’s president and CEO.
“We’ve been growing at a very steady clip. I know everyone points to the banking industry problems at the national level but we have no foreclosures and we haven’t for the last seven years,” Hamilton said.
The Bellingham branch will total 3,000 square feet and will be a full-service bank for retail and commercial banking. Its location at the intersection of Maple Street and Route 140 is about a mile from the commuter rail station and in the middle of a rapidly ex-panding retail area made it a perfect site.
The site is owned by Roger Calarese of Calarese Properties of Franklin. The bank plans to rent half the building, with other professional offices like lawyers, accountants or doctors renting the rest. Calarese is due to break ground soon and the bank should take over the shell in September.
“The fastest growing part of our bank is our commercial lending and services department,” Hamilton said. There are no other banks within a couple of miles of the site and there are many businesses close by, he added.
The new Mendon branch has been delayed because abutters of that branch’s proposed location appealed the project in state Land Court. The case was recently dismissed from the court and work will begin soon.
