THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 1995 TAG: 9509130394
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Hoping to raise at least $6 million of capital for a new community bank, the organizers of Harbor Bank in Newport News have begun soliciting funds from individual investors.
The organizers expect to file with Virginia's Bureau of Financial Institutions for a bank charter by Oct. 31 and hope to open for business by next April, said Gordon L. Gentry Jr., Harbor Bank's chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Twenty-eight charter investors, including several business owners, executives and professionals from the region, already have committed to buy $3.8 million of stock in the new bank, said Gentry, who had been chairman of the old Newport News thrift TideMark Bank and a former officer of Richmond-based Signet Bank.
Harbor's organizers are trying to sell 600,000 to 1 million common shares. The stock is being offered at $10 a share, with a minimum purchase of 100 shares per investor.
The offering circular being distributed to prospective investors cautioned that it's unlikely that an active market will develop for Harbor's shares in the near future.
Efforts to launch a new community bank are taking place in the midst of a rapid consolidation among the nation's existing financial institutions. Earlier this year, TideMark was acquired by Richmond-based Crestar Bank. Virginia Beach-based Commerce Bank, which operates on the Peninsula, was bought by a North Carolina bank-holding company.
In recent months, at least a dozen large banking organizations have announced merger agreements that would be worth more than $1 billion each.
But small-business owners and many individuals still want a level of personal service that giant banks no longer deliver, said Gentry.
``In a time of need, business people want to talk to bankers who know them,'' he said. ``And many individuals are tired of dialing a telephone number and being told to `Punch this number,' and `Punch that number.' ''
Harbor, he said, will concentrate on lending to small businesses, professionals and individuals in Newport News, Hampton, Williamsburg, and York, James City, and Gloucester counties.
In addition to competing with statewide banks like NationsBank, Crestar, First Union, Central Fidelity and Signet, Harbor will have to contend with at least two community banks in its market: Old Point National Bank in Hampton, and Peninsula Trust Bank in Gloucester.
Gentry, who is operating with an assistant from a former bank branch at Warwick Boulevard and Cedar Lane in Newport News, said his initial plans call for opening one office in Hampton, one in Williamsburg, and two in Newport News, including a headquarters office in the Oyster Point area.
Gentry said he has selected an individual to serve as the bank's chief financial officer but has not yet chosen people for other management positions.
Harbor's 13-member board of directors includes Charles A. Banks, president and CEO of Ferguson Enterprises Inc., the Newport News-based distributor of plumbing and heating equipment; Arthur S. Casey, chairman of the Casey Auto Group in Newport News; and John R. Lawson II, president and CEO of the Newport News construction company W.M. Jordan Co. by CNB