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BY KEITH BENMAN
Times Business Writer | Wednesday, April 14, 2004 | (No comments posted.)
DYER -- Citizens Financial Services' new commercial lending center overlooks a pristine suburban neighborhood in back and the busiest east-west commuter route south of I-94 in front.
Those two scenes sum up much of the bank's mission these days, as it looks to cash in on the high-growth suburban belt that stretches from Valparaiso, in Porter County, to Naperville, in Chicago's west suburbs.
"There is so much commercial development right in this vicinity," said Citizens Financial Services President James Prisby at the new center on Tuesday. "This location will allow us to take advantage of what we think will be a major business hub for Northwest Indiana."
The new commercial lending center at the Woudeland Professional Center, at 1100 E. Joliet St., will open for business on April 26. It will provide Citizens' commercial bankers with ready access to points east and west as well as Ill.-394, Prisby said.
The bank hired six new commercial bankers in the past year. Those officers are the road warriors of the business, drumming up new loans by calling on business customers big and small. Pay for the job is in the range of $60,000 to six figures, according to Zoran Koricanac, Citizens' senior vice president for commercial and small business lending.
In addition to the six new commercial bankers, Citizens hired seven credit administration professionals in 2003, Koricanac said. The bank's commercial loan portfolio grew to $631 million in 2003 from $235 million in 1999, according to the bank's 2003 annual report.
Two suites of offices at the Woudeland Professional Center will house up to 35 commercial lending employees in all. A small Citizens' bank branch with two drive-up lanes is located at the building's east side. A June opening is planned for the branch.
Citizens is not the only bank to recognize Dyer as a burgeoning business hub. TCF Bank, Mercantile Bank, Bank Calumet and Bank One all have branches within a half-mile of the intersection of Calumet Avenue and Joliet Street.
But Citizens' new commercial lending center will be the first bank operation there to make the leap beyond retail banking. Citizens' commercial lending activities have been housed in Hammond. But staff expansion made those offices too small, Prisby said.
Citizens became a two-state bank in 1998 when parent CFS Bancorp acquired the 12 branches of Suburban Federal Savings, based in Flossmoor. Citizens now has 11 branches in Indiana and 11 in Illinois.
In addition to the Dyer commercial lending center, there is a west region commercial lending office housed at the bank's Bolingbrook branch. A central region office will open in Tinley Park in 2005.
Citizens is one of a number of local community banks seeking to grow its commercial loan business. In part, that is because Internet loan brokers and others have put the squeeze on community banks when it comes to home loans, Prisby said.
The movement is also taking place because small and medium-sized businesses increasingly appreciate the personalized service community banks can deliver.
"We can address not only the needs of large borrowers but also small borrowers," said Koricanac.
Some recent projects financed by Citizens were the Aurelio's Pizza restaurants in Griffith and Chesterton, Lake Park Surgicare, in Hobart; and at AirTek Inc., a producer of catalytic converters, in Hobart. The bank was also the primary lender for the Ameriplex at the Port, an industrial and logistics park in Portage.
The Office of Thrift Supervision puts a $20 million cap on loans from Citizens. But the bank participates with larger lenders like Harris Bank and LaSalle Bank on major commercial projects, according to Koricanac.
Keith Benman can be reached at kbenman@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-3326.
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