Banking on a college degree

Key Bank”™s regional headquarters on the Newburgh waterfront will soon become part of the State University of New York”™s new Orange County college. If schedules hold true, students will replace bankers in the Maple Street building”™s corridors by the fall semester of 2008.

Key”™s headquarters has found a new home on the other side of the river in the town of Poughkeepsie. Like many other businesses, it has chosen the increasingly popular Dutchess County Route 9 corridor for its high-visibility location and for the business campus setting that a new retail/class “A” office park, Oakwood Commons, will offer them.  The former IBM site, now under construction, will be Key”™s new home, joined by Hilton Garden Inn, Compensation Risk Managers, CVS Pharmacy and others. Key”™s move is planned for early 2008.

The bank”™s Oakwood Commons headquarters will merge approximately 50 current employees under one roof and include a retail branch on the street level. “Having the majority of our line of business team leaders and support partners in one location will provide greater synergies for our regional banking activities,” said Reginald Fuller III, the president of the Hudson Valley District of the bank”™s new headquarters.

Newburgh”™s Key Bank site was considered the prime contender when Orange County Community College went shopping for a location for a new campus. The college in Middletown has had a satellite program at the Key Bank site for several years, offering as many as eight courses. “They have actively supported several college initiatives and fundraisers,” said college President Dr. Bill Richards. “Our students who have interned at Key have come away with extremely valuable work skills learned in a very professional environment.”

 

With a go-ahead from the county legislature, $40 million in reserve in the SUNY system for the new campus and a $10 million pledge from William Kaplan to the college if they opened the school within the borders of the City of Newburgh, the site selection process took months. In the end, the college went with the Key Bank location, where it will be able to open its new campus, offer parking and have room for future expansion.

As a good will gesture, Key donated $25,000 to the school”™s building fund. “The bank”™s been generous with the college for many years,” said Richards.

Fuller says the college expansion at the waterfront is in the best interests of the property as a whole. “When we heard of their interest, we began looking throughout the mid-Hudson Valley for suitable space. Oakwood Commons was the perfect fit to expand our franchise.” Currently, the seven-county district has 32 branches and employs more than 300 people.

The move will not hinder Key”™s pledge to lend $1 billion to women-owned firms by February, 2008.  According to Maria Coyne, executive vice president of Key4Women, Key has exceeded its goal a year ahead of schedule. The bank, while announcing the new relocation of the Hudson Valley headquarters, affirmed its  pledge of another $2 billion in capital for women business owners over the next five years.