SYRACUSE — Pathfinder Bank is expanding its planned downtown Syracuse branch office even before it opens. The Oswego–based community bank had expected to open a 1,500-square-foot office focused on lending in Pike Block by about Oct. 1. But now, Pathfinder is shifting gears to open a 2,600-square-foot office that will offer a broader range […]
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SYRACUSE — Pathfinder Bank is expanding its planned downtown Syracuse branch office even before it opens.
The Oswego–based community bank had expected to open a 1,500-square-foot office focused on lending in Pike Block by about Oct. 1. But now, Pathfinder is shifting gears to open a 2,600-square-foot office that will offer a broader range of services, including accepting commercial deposits, according to Thomas W. Schneider, president and CEO of Pathfinder Bank and its holding company, Pathfinder Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBHC).
“I anticipate strong demand in the marketplace as we’ve had in our lending capabilities and want to be in position to respond quickly to meet market needs,” Schneider says in an interview.
The office, which will be Pathfinder’s first-ever physical location in Syracuse, is now expected to open around Nov. 1, he says. It will employ a minimum of four full-time equivalent employees. Pathfinder employs 111 people companywide.
Pathfinder is enlarging its plans for the branch in part because of opportunity — additional space came available at Pike Block — and in part because it wants to accommodate future growth.
“We were fortunate that [the space] was available. At the same time, we started to assess how quickly we might outgrow the 1,500 square feet,” Schneider says. He says the bank is adding a “a sliver of space” between its originally planned location and space that CenterState CEO will occupy at Pike Block. “We were very happy to be able to have the space,” he says.
The Pike Block is a combination of the Chamberlin, Witherill, Wilson, and Bond Buildings at the corner of South Salina and West Fayette Streets, and is being developed by VIP Development Associates, Inc. (VIPDA). The development includes residential apartments that have started opening, as well as planned commercial tenants like Tim Hortons Café and Bake Shop and Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches — in addition to Pathfinder and CenterState CEO.
The Pathfinder branch office will primarily focus on making small business, commercial real estate, commercial term, and industrial loans, and accepting commercial deposits. But with the larger space, the bank is setting the stage for a possible, full-scale retail branch office, accepting consumer deposits.
“We particularly want to be able to service commercial deposits and if the market demand seems ready for retail then we’ll have the ability to be able to provide that quickly,” Schneider says. “If you look at the residents moving into the downtown area, in and around the Armory Square area, we expect that retail demand to build and we’ll be able to meet it.”
Pathfinder Bank, founded in 1859 as Oswego City Savings Bank, says it’s the oldest financial institution in Oswego County. And until recent years, it focused almost exclusively on that county.
But for the last eight years, Pathfinder has been actively making loans into the Syracuse market and generating some of its best growth there, according to Schneider. Its growth in small-business lending helped spark the bank to open its first retail branch office in Onondaga County in early 2011 — on Route 31 in Cicero. The bank’s other seven branches are all in Oswego County.
Pathfinder Bank’s Cicero office has generated steady growth, amassing $40 million in deposits by the end of June 2012, according to the latest FDIC data available.
Pathfinder expects to spend about $400,000 total to open the Pike Block branch. That covers everything — equipment, furniture, and design layout — but the people, says Schneider.
The bank will work with VIPDA and its parent VIP Structures, a Syracuse–based design-build firm, on the design phase and build-out of the office. Pathfinder has also hired DeWitt–based Design Specialists, Inc., headed by Krista J. Taskey, to provide interior design and space-planning services, says Schneider.
Pathfinder Bancorp, the holding company for Pathfinder Bank, reported net income of $823,000 in the second quarter, up 14 percent from $721,000 in the year-ago period.
Pathfinder’s earnings per share rose to 33 cents in the second quarter from 24 cents in the year-earlier quarter.
The banking company had total loans of nearly $338 million as of June 30, up slightly from total loans of almost $334 million as of Dec. 31, 2012.
Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com
