Mainebiz

August 21, 2017

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V O L . X X I I I N O. X I X A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 1 7 18 B angor Savings Bank is expand- ing across Maine and beyond while upgrading its home base to a multi-million-dollar Penobscot River waterfront campus. "Wow, this is coming along nicely," says Bob Montgomery-Rice, the bank's president and CEO, on a recent visit to the building site, sporting a hardhat and dress shirt with Boston Red Sox 'B' logo cu inks. He's counting on the new digs to keep current employees happy and lure new ones. Maine's second-largest bank needs a bigger nerve center after seeing straight years of earnings growth. In June it posted record earnings of nearly million for the s- cal year, up . over . In the past year it opened more than , new core deposit accounts, including ,-plus business accounts, and pro- vided . million in home loans. "We provide payroll services for approximately , companies across the country, in every state except Wyoming. For every businesses we add into the mix, we need an additional person in Bangor to service those accounts," says Montgomery-Rice. " e mortgage busi- ness is not that di erent. We were the No. mortgage lender in Maine last year. at kind of growth and that kind of vol- ume requires us to hire people to handle the back-o ce work, and the majority of those positions reside in Bangor." 'All-in-one' campus e -year-old Bangor Savings Bank, which ended its rst year with . million in assets, now has . billion on its books. Out of employees statewide, are in Bangor — which Montgomery-Rice sees going up to when the new site opens. "We're always recruiting, that's just natural growth for us," he says, con dent the new site "could easily expand to ." e future nerve center will house a four-story, ,-square foot building, on the site of a -built edi ce that had been vacant for more than a decade and was reportedly assessed at . mil- lion, and an adjacent ,-square- foot new construction still to be built. David Latulippe of CJ Developers Inc. in Freeport has worked with Bangor Savings for the past ve years on its state- wide branch expansion drive. He says the waterfront project was made possible by combining unlisted properties from three previous owners, including the city of Bangor and the Quirk family. "Typically I don't look for something that's for sale," he says, "but what's the right site and then see if it could be made for sale." He says it helped that the city, which owned the middle parcel where there's now a parking lot, had a long-term vision of developing the waterfront years after buying the land. He also prefers redeveloping a property over taking raw land. PRESEN T ING SP ONSORS To make a Donation to the Next List Alumni Scholarship Fund through the Maine Community Foundation, visit mainecf.org and click on Make a gift. FOLLOW US @MBEVENTS #MBNext17 Nominate a Mainebiz Next List candidate today NOMINATION CRITERIA: Must be a business owner, CEO, founder, executive director, entrepreneur or business leader. Has demonstrated forward-thinking and an innovative approach to their work. A positive motivator and influencer of change. Demonstrates an innovative approach to problem solving while up against obstacles or barriers. Mainebiz needs your help to recognize ten dynamic individuals who are changing Maine's Economy and making a significant impact in their industry. To identify these trailblazing business leaders, we're opening the nomination process up to you! You tell us, who's NEXT? Nominate by Aug. 26: mainebiz.biz/next P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R Building a bigger bank Bangor Savings Bank readies a new waterfront campus • • • • • • F O C U S Bob Montgomery-Rice, president and CEO of Bangor Savings Bank, says the new campus will accommodate 500 employees.

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