Miami-area bank expands into Gulf Coast

ST. PETERSBURG —A Miami area bank is opening two new offices in Florida, including one in St. Petersburg.

Professional Bank’s local office will not be a standard branch but a loan production office. 

The spokesman says the bank is currently looking at space in downtown St. Petersburg. The second Florida office will be in Jacksonville. Professional expects to finalize leases in both cities in the next several weeks.

The bank has one existing loan production office in Bedford, New Hampshire. In addition to that office, there are nine branches, all of them in south Florida, and a Digital Innovation Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Daniel R. Sheehan, Chairman and CEO of Professional Bank and Professional Holding Corp., says in a press release that the bank has “been interested in entering both of these markets for some time, but wanted to wait for the right opportunity.” He says with the pandemic behind them and a team in place, the time seemed right.

In all, the bank's plan is to hire eight employees for the two office, four of them locally. Most of the positions are loan officers who’ll be responsible for bringing in new clients.

Professional Bank was founded in 2008 and went public in 2020. Shortly afterward, it merged with Marquis Bank.

According to its first quarter earnings report released in May, the bank’s total deposits grew 39%, $533 million, to $1.91 billion since the first quarter of 2020.