Bank of Everett opening its doors

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 29, 2006

EVERETT – The new Bank of Everett will start doing business today, after getting approval from regulators.

“We’ll have a bit of a soft opening, but the doors will be open,” said President Mike Deller.

Deller said the bank has completed remodeling of its location at 2722 Colby Ave., the former Everett Professional Center, which is to be renamed the Bank of Everett Tower. It has also hired enough key staffers to open, although Deller said he expects to hire more lending officers as the bank grows.

Many of them are Deller’s former colleagues from his days as president of EverTrust Bank. EverTrust was purchased by banking giant KeyCorp in 2004.

Bank of Everett will focus on small business lending, but also will offer a full line of retail banking services, Deller said. “We’ll offer pretty much what you’d expect from the big guys, but we’ll be in one location.”

Deller spent seven years as EverTrust’s president, but had never launched a wholly new bank. “It’s real rewarding,” he said, “to go from kind of the inkling last fall to have a team and facility and customers.”

Bank of Everett is backed by Capitol Bancorp, a Michigan-based bank holding company that has helped form 46 independent community banks in 12 states. The Everett bank will be its second in Washington; the first was Bank of Bellevue.

On Monday, Capitol affiliates Bank of Valdosta and Sunrise Bank of Atlanta opened in Georgia. The company said it has applications pending on two other new banks in other states.

Bank of Everett is one of two new community banks that will open this year. The second, Mountain Pacific Bank, has set July 24 as its tentative opening date, assuming it gets approval from regulators, said Mark Duffy, the president-designate.

The bank is in the process of trying to raise $12.5 million in startup capital, and is within $1 million of that goal, Duffy said.

Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.