Business Bank of Nevada long has eyed the Reno market, but the Las Vegas-based company didn't move until it had the right person to head the new operation.
The company last week opened a loan production office in south Reno, and it left no doubt that it expects to have a full-blown branch office open in less than a year.
The loan-production office which can't handle deposits, withdrawals or cash transactions is at 6880 S.
McCarran near its intersection with Lakeside Drive.
The immediate impetus for the company's move into Reno was its ability to attract veteran northern Nevada banker Ken Achurra to head the new operation.
Achurra's experience includes 12 years at Colonial Bank where he worked two years as northern Nevada area president as well as executive and lending positions.
"Hiring Ken Achurra was the determining factor," said Paul Stowell, a senior vice president with Business Bank of Nevada.
"It's always been our strategy to find the right people first."
Once it's made a hiring decision, Business Bank moves quickly, usually by opening a loan-production office.
A loan office, Stowell said, doesn't need to clear the same regulatory hoops as a branch office and the staffing requirements can be met quickly.
Although Business Bank is committed to opening a branch in Reno as quickly as it can win regulatory approval and hire a qualified staff, Stowell noted that a loan-production office gives the company a chance to learn more about the market in the meantime.
It's a strategy the company has followed before in northern Nevada.
In Minden, for instance, Business Bank launched a loan-production office in early 2003, expanding it into a fullservice bank by mid-year.
The company also opened a loanproduction office at Stateline in 2002.
Stowell said Reno long had been in the sights of Business Bank, which was launched in southern Nevada nine years ago.
"We have identified market areas that we wanted to expand into," he said.
"We feel like Reno is a market that is under-served by the community bank process."
The company has been further encouraged, Stowell said, by customers at its branch in Carson City who've said they hope to see Business Bank enter the Reno market.
Achurra, a native of Fallon and a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, worked 12 years for Security Pacific Nevada (formerly Nevada National Bank) and also worked six years at First National Bank of Nevada before he joined InterWest Bank, the predecessor of Colonial Bank.
Jerry Gregory, who oversees northern Nevada operations for Business Bank, said Achurra's first duties with the company include finding a location for a fullservice bank and recruiting managers and employees
to staff the facility.
