The new branch, opening this spring, will give Commercial Bank a broader presence in the Grand Rapids area banking market.
The office being built at 240 Lake Michigan Drive NW in Talmadge Township, just over the Ottawa and Kent county line from Walker's Sterndale neighborhood, will be the 10th branch for Ithaca-based Commercial Bank, north of Lansing.
The community bank previously had a loan production office in downtown Grand Rapids that opened in 2016 but closed last November as plans for a new full-service branch moved forward. The downtown loan office had established a solid book of business in the market with more than $30 million in commercial loans, and “we expect to see even more of that once we have a presence there,” said Kevin Collison, Commercial Bank's president and CEO.
“We've built up a lot of traction there and we also have a really good sales and finance team operating in the Grand Rapids area, so we decided it was time to take the next step by opening an office,” Collison said. “This is an area that's poised for growth. We've built a significant customer base, and our customers have been asking us when we're going to open a branch to serve their local customer base.”
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The new branch represents about a $2 million investment for Commercial Bank, Collison said.
The 130-year-old commercial bank currently has branches in what Collison calls “the big circle” of the central Lower Peninsula, including Ithaca, Alma, St. Louis, Middleton, Okemos, Mason, Hastings and Greenville, as well as a lending office in Alma.
Parent company Commercial National Financial Corporation acquired the former Main Street Bank in Hastings in 2010 and Mason State Bank in Mason in 2017.
Commercial National Financial (Pink Sheets: CEFC) had total assets of $579.1 million, total deposits of $501.6 million, and total loans of $417.4 million as of the end of 2023. The company recorded net income of approximately $6.2 million in 2023.
Commercial Bank primarily provides small business, consumer and residential mortgage loans, but after opening the new branch, it will look to expand its lending presence in West Michigan.
Collison sees the lakefront as a potential market for Commercial Bank to open new branches, possibly in Grand Haven, because a friend of his, a local dentist who formerly practiced in Ithaca, refers “a fair number of clients” locally to the bank.
Collison said a second West Michigan office is probably a year or more away from opening.
“There's a lot of business in the Grand Haven area, so we may go in that direction eventually. We have quite a clientele that we've built up over the years,” Collison said. “If this office gets off the ground and becomes very popular, we could do it sooner. If we start out a little slower, it might take a couple of years. We'd like to have another office in the area, probably within the next two to three years.”
Collison said Commercial Bank takes a conservative approach to lending: The bank's “sweet spot” for commercial loans ranges from $500,000 to $4 million, with a regulatory loan limit of $6.5 million.
Jayme Kosal serves as Vice President, Commercial Lending Officer and West Michigan Regional Representative for Commercial Bank.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated commercial banks' 2023 net income.
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