Charter approved for Springfield’s newest bank

Bank executives Brian Straughan, Jan Baumgartner and Kirk Bossert filed the charter application in late May after raising more than $22 million in startup capital from 71 shareholders and forming Springfield Bancshares Inc., the bank’s holding company. Baumgartner said they were notified Sept. 23 that the charter had been approved for the bank, which organizers – a group that includes board members Charlie O’Reilly of the O’Reilly Automotive family and Realtor Larry Lipscomb – hope to keep locally owned and operated.

Earlier this year, Straughan, Bossert and Baumgartner left their jobs with BancorpSouth, the Tupelo, Miss.-based institution that entered Springfield last year through a $170 million merger with The Signature Bank, a community bank formed in 1997.

Straughan, Springfield First’s president and CEO, said the four-month turnaround time for bank charter approval was relatively quick given the size of the application – it weighed 56 pounds – and the number of government regulatory agencies involved. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve and U.S. Department of Justice reviewed the application in addition to the state Division of Finance.

The six-member Springfield First management team has hired 15 employees to run the bank from two temporary trailers – one for normal bank operations and another for the lending department – on a vacant, 2.6-acre lot at 2006 S. Glenstone Ave.

The bank purchased the site of the former Merigold Inn for $2 million and demolished the motel to make room for its main branch – a 16,000-square-foot, two-story structure designed by Rob Haik, principal architect at H Design Group LLC. Click here for a larger view of the project rendering.

Eoff & Associates is the project’s general contractor, and construction is expected to last about a year. The bank’s temporary location, which is tentatively scheduled to open its doors Oct. 17, will feature a drive-through and an ATM.

Bossert said the bank’s goal is to grow its assets to $200 million in three years.

“We need to click along at $25 million a quarter,” Bossert said. “I think once you can get up to the first $100 million, you’ve reached a real critical mass.”

See SBJ’s Sept. 29 issue for more about Springfield First Community Bank’s charter approval.