Continuing its expansion out of the Inland Empire, Redlands Centennial Bank is opening a branch in Brea.
“Brea is a hot location,” said Douglas Spencer, president and chief executive of the Redlands-based bank. “North Orange County has been and continues to be a good business environment.”
Redlands Centennial already has a loan production office in Anaheim and a Small Business Administration loan office in Santa Ana. The bank’s Brea facility will be a 5,000-square-foot, full-service branch at Lambert Road and the Orange (57) Freeway.
For now, the Brea branch’s staff is working out of temporary offices in Anaheim. Redlands Centennial has gathered about $20 million in assets in the past six months for the branch, Spencer said. The bank counts 50 employees in all and will have another eight at the new branch.
Redlands Centennial is looking to grow by acquisition. Its parent company, Redlands-based Centennial First Financial Services announced plans to buy Escondido-based Palomar Bank last month as part of is strategy to expand across Southern California.
“Palomar will have a springboard for acquisitions in San Diego County,” Spencer said. Centennial First is paying $10.5 million in cash and stock for Palomar. The bank plans to keep name and management in place.
“We’ll take some time to integrate our operations and smooth it out, which should take a year or two,” Spencer said.
Redlands Centennial has benefited from the ongoing banking consolidation. It hired several people from the 110-year old Redlands Federal Bank after it was acquired at the end of 1997.
“We practically hired their whole real estate department,” Spencer said. Since then, Redlands Centennial’s real estate department has brought in more assets. According to Spencer, the bank’s real estate department produced $50 million in construction loans last year.
Redlands Centennial also entered the insurance and securities business recently.
“We have been working on it for a few years, rolled out seven or eight months ago and are putting finishing touches on it,” Spencer.
The bank formed a limited liability partnership with 20 other small banks in order to get the attention of national insurance and stock brokerage companies. n
