Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Lake City Bank is spreading its wings beyond the small towns of north-central Indiana.
The locally-owned Warsaw bank, which has been in a pronounced growth mode for more than two years, plans to open branch offices in outlying parts of Fort Wayne and South Bend in the coming months.
The 126-year-old bank first moved beyond Kosciusko County in 1984, adding its 11th office in Roann. The bank now has 42 offices, including 16 added in the past two years.
But the crowning accomplishment in the recent growth is likely the bank's new headquarters for its trust department and offices on Market Street in Warsaw. The bank already has three downtown locations used primarily for office space, but needed a fourth. They chose the old Kline's building across from the Times-Union and spent much of the last year renovating the 23,000-square-foot building that includes a large lower level.
At 4 p.m. Wednesday the bank will host an open house at the Lakeland Financial Corp. building.
What visitors will find are two main areas that include the trust department and behind-the-scenes office areas that encompass personnel, marketing and other aspects. The trust department features classic woodworking, a copper ceiling and antique furniture.
The new offices will allow other offices room to breathe and provide more room for growth in the future, said Doug Grant, CEO and chairman of the board of directors for the bank.
"We were bursting at the seams," Grant said.
The bank now employs about 450 people, which includes more than 100 employees added in two years.
Grant said the bank has built a niche by serving small towns and specializing in small to medium-sized loans. Much of their business involves farming and the Amish in communities such as Shipshewana, Lagrange, Middlebury and Nappanee, which have a very low default rate.
In addition to constructing several branch offices, the expansion has also come from purchasing offices and the deposits of several banks, including KeyBank, National City Bank and NBD Bank.
As a result of the acquisitions, the total amount of assets has grown from $650 million in early 1997 to a current level of about $900 million, Grant said.
The bank has purchased land near Coldwater and DuPont roads on Fort Wayne's north side and is looking for property on the southwest side. Construction on the north side office will begin soon, Grant said.
The bank already has a presence in Michiana with offices in Mishawaka, Elkhart and Granger, and will continue to look at locations in the South Bend area when options become available.
Moving into the suburbs of Fort Wayne and South Bend is a natural transition, he said. The Fort Wayne branches will be just a few miles from other branches in Kendallville and Huntington, he said.
LCB is an independent bank controlled by 1,400 shareholders, most of whom live in the area. The largest chunk of shareholders is represented by the employees through the bank's profit-sharing program, Grant said.
"Our mission is to be independent. There is no conversation at all about consolidating with anybody," Grant said.
While the banking industry is seeing more and more small banks merge with bigger banks, Grant said, such a merger isn't in the offing.
"We've had great success in most of the towns we've been in. Every time there's another bank merger, that accrues to our benefit. Every time somebody changes a sign, to a degree, that accrues to our benefit because people get lost in the shuffle," Grant said.
