Banking on business in Westchester

Bankers, like restaurateurs, have rediscovered a recipe for success: Go local. That business strategy has been applied in White Plains by Webster Bank, an institution with Depression-era roots in Waterbury, Conn., to expand its commercial banking presence in Westchester.

Bank executives were joined by city and county officials at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1 N. Broadway in downtown White Plains, where the bank in November opened its Webster Regional Banking Center. The bank”™s blue and gold brand logo is prominently displayed at the busy corner of Broadway and Main Street, where Webster, the 30th largest commercial bank in the U.S., has leased a 6,000-square-foot office space last occupied by NY Sports Club. Twelve bankers work there, including teams from Webster”™s commercial banking, small-business banking, government and nonprofit banking, consumer finance and retail banking units.

The hub of banking operations

The business center, which serves as the bank”™s New York regional headquarters, represents a nearly $3.5 million investment in the Westchester market, according to a bank spokesperson. It is the most recent deployment of a regional model for Webster”™s seven metropolitan areas of operation, which include Waterbury, Stamford, New Haven and Hartford in Connecticut, Providence, R.I., and Boston, Mass. Webster, the largest independent commercial bank based in New England, opened a flagship office in downtown Boston in 2009.

John R. Ciulla, executive vice president at Webster, said the White Plains center will be the hub of the bank”™s eight-spoked retail banking operations in Westchester. Entering the county in 2003 with a Scarsdale branch, Webster has opened seven more branches in White Plains, Yonkers, Rye, Larchmont and New Rochelle.

“We want to be a local bank,” Ciulla said in White Plains. On the lobby wall behind him, bank employees”™ volunteer work with nonprofit agencies in the county was listed below a large-lettered slogan, “We”™re connected to the Westchester community.”

“We”™re not just here to process widgets in another area,” Ciulla said. “We want to be a regional bank with a local presence.

“We think this is an investment not only for ourselves and our shareholders, but an investment in the community.”

The banking center team in White Plains is led by Brendan Sachtjen, Webster”™s New York regional president and Bronxville resident. “This headquarters is confirmation that we plan to be here for a long time,” he said. Sachtjen said more business bankers will be added to the New York region this year.

Active time for business banking

Webster in the last year ramped up its Westchester activity in both retail and commercial banking. Deposits at its offices in the county about doubled in 2010, from $352 million to more than $700 million, according to a bank spokesperson. Its business banking clients include The Balance Bar Co., a nutritional food products business in Valhalla; Houlihan-Parnes Realtors L.L.C. in Harrison; RPW Group Inc., the commercial office developer and owner in Rye Brook headed by Robert P. Weisz, and Diamond Properties L.L.C., the multifamily and mixed-use developer in Mount Kisco.

Robin Gallagher, Webster”™s senior vice president who heads the commercial real estate unit in White Plains, said the bank in Westchester has been actively lending in all property types, including retail, commercial office and industrial, for both acquisitions and refinancing. The bank is very active in community development lending for affordable housing, she said.

“We tend to deal with the experienced developers who have the track record and the expertise,” Gallagher said. “That”™s sort of our target audience.”

Sachtjen, who heads regional banking for middle-market companies with revenue of more than $10 million, said his White Plains unit closed five deals in December. The center”™s small-business team closed $7.1 million in loans in a “tremendous” December, said Frank J. Celentano Jr., who heads small-business lending in Westchester for Webster, Connecticut”™s leading lender for U.S. Small Business Administration loans for the past five years.

James C. Smith, chairman and CEO of Webster Financial Corp., the publicly traded holding company for Webster Bank, in a statement said the bank in 2010 originated more than $550 million in new loans to businesses of all sizes across its four-state region.

Smith”™s father, Harold Webster Smith, founded First Federal Savings of Waterbury in 1935. The bank later was renamed to honor its founder, who turned over the CEO post to his son in 1987 and retired as bank chairman in 1995.

Webster first expanded its retail business beyond Connecticut in 2004, when it acquired FirstFed America Bancorp, the holding company for First Federal Savings Bank of America. It acquired HSA Bank in 2005.