Community Bank of Lincoln applies for federal approval

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By JEAN ORTIZ/Lincoln Journal Star

Pending federal regulatory approvals, a new community bank could be operating in Lincoln by year’s end.

An application has been filed to organize a full-service bank that would operate under the name Community Bank of Lincoln, organizers announced Monday.       The federal Office of Thrift Supervision shows the bank’s application pending.

At the helm will be Mary Gerdes, president, a 33-year veteran of the banking industry who spent the last four years as president of a community bank in Nebraska City.

The bank will focus on personalized banking services to individuals and small-to-medium-sized business owners, with a specific goal of “relationship banking,” which Gerdes said she believes is in demand in Lincoln.

“We've identified a need by visiting with key people in the community,” she said.   The institution will start with a minimum  of $8 million in capital from  Capital Bank Corp of Lansing, Mich., and local investors, whom Gerdes would not identify.  

As a community bank, she said, there will be no branching into other communities. Staff, directors, and loan decisions will be based locally, Gerdes said.

Brian Wolford, the former state executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Nebraska Farm Service Agency, has been named executive vice president and chief credit officer. Wolford, a long-time banker, will oversee the proposed bank's loan portfolio.

Gerdes said she anticipates receiving the approvals necessary to begin operating out of a temporary location at  3801 Union Drive, Suite 200, by the end of the year.

The permanent location, 6000 Village Drive, is now under construction. The bank will lease space from Hampton Enterprises, which is building a 14,000-square-foot building in Williamsburg, Gerdes said.

The building should be ready for tenants by April, said Michelle Keogh, broker and director of property management with Hampton Enterprises.

The Community Bank of Lincoln will occupy about 9,700 square feet and Gary Michael’s Clothiers will use about 2,900 square feet. Hampton Enterprises is in negotiations to sign a third lease for the remaining space in the single-story plus loft building, Keogh said.

The last bank to start up in Lincoln that wasn’t from another institution or to serve other banks was West Gate Bank in 1968, according to records of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Journal Star archives. 

Reach Jean Ortiz at 473-7107 or jortiz@journalstar.com

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The proposed board of directors of the Community Bank of Lincoln and and their affiliations:

Mary Gerdes, president of the bank; Kaylyn R. Jackman  an optometrist, Eye Surgical Associates; Gordon V. Karels, chair of the Department of Finance for the College of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Alan C. Linderman, physician and owner, Nebraska Internal Medicine P.C.; Paula J. Metcalf, attorney; Former State Sen. Donald W. Pederson; Laura E. Pederson, student; Steve B. Rexroth, owner/operator, Miracle Workers Auto Collision Center; Robert B. Rhodes, physician; Kurtis A. Suhr, architect and owner, Architecture One; Mark L. Vanicek, dentist; Gary L. Novotny, owner, Gary Michael's Clothiers.