
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 15, 1994                   TAG: 9402150079
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Mag Poff Staff Writer
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BANK-TO-BE HAS OFFICE, PHONE NUMBER

Valley Bank opened its initial office Monday but said it will be several months before it begins taking deposits.

What is termed a temporary office is at 32 Church Ave. S.W., a two-story building between the First Federal Building and Mitchell's menswear shop. It formerly housed the mortgage loan department of First Federal Savings Bank and its successor, CorEast Savings Bank.

The new Valley Bank, whose organization was announced last month, has taken an option on the adjacent first floor of the First Federal Building.

Guy Byrd Jr., president of Valley Bank, and Wayne Lewis, senior vice president, said the option does not mean the building will be the bank's permanent headquarters. They said that decision will be made after negotiations with the owner, Elbert Waldron.

Valley Bank also plans a branch in the Tanglewood area of Roanoke County.

And the institution announced its telephone number: 342-BANK.

Byrd said furniture for the temporary office, including a fax machine, copier and refrigerator, is on loan from organizers and their friends.

Byrd and Lewis are working full time there. Betty Carr Hancock Muse is volunteer part-time receptionist.

Byrd and Lewis are assembling the detailed information that must be included in the organization's application for a federal bank charter. Their target date for completion of the application is spring.

The organizers plan a stock offering to the public during the summer and hope to open the bank by the end of the year.

Before opening, the bank must be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve Bank, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the U.S. comptroller of the currency. The State Corporation Commission must give approval to operate in Virginia.

Byrd is a former Blue Ridge region executive officer for Signet Bank in Roanoke. He also was president of the former Colonial American National Bank. He returned to Roanoke from Charleston, W.Va., where he was president of the National Bank of Commerce.

Lewis was executive vice president and corporate secretary of Dominion Bankshares Corp. until his job was abolished in Dominion's merger last year with First Union Corp.

by CNB