Dallas bank expands to Garland
15-Jul-2011Dallas Business Journal
July 15, 2011
A Dallas bank that serves independent business owners has expanded into Garland.
Texas Security Bank opened its 3,500- square-foot location at 101 N. Garland Ave. on July 5, although the six-employee branch will hold its grand opening in the first week of August.
As with its headquarters in the Dallas Design District, Texas Security’s Garland branch is deliberately located in a commercial area.
Craig Scheef, the bank’s president, CEO and founder, said being in those areas of town makes it easier to call on nearby business owners who don’t have many other choices in banks around them.
“It’s a little counterintuitive,” he said.
Most banks will focus on high-growth residential spots, such as McKinney and Frisco, for new branches, Scheef said. Texas Security instead likes areas such as Irving, East Plano and the I-35/Valley View area of Carrollton as sites for possible future growth. Scheef stressed that there is no scheduled time for going into any of those spots.
“Our focus is continuing to perform in the Stemmons and Design District and get Garland profitable and performing,” he said. “Then we’ll look at what’s available.”
As a sign of how seriously he’s taking the Garland branch, Scheef will run the location himself, with the Dallas shop being handled by Chris Jones, who is the institution’s chief credit officer, executive vice president and director.
When a relatively new bank does an expansion — Texas Security opened a little over three years ago — “it needs to be successful,” Scheef said.
Three years, $132 million
Despite having opened in May 2008, right when the economy was going down in flames, Texas Security has managed build itself up to nearly $132.2 million in assets.
Texas Security is profitable, having reaped $216,000 in net income attributable to the bank in 2011’s first quarter, the latest period for which data are available.
“They have a well-diversified loan portfolio,” said Carla Brooks, a managing director at Commerce Street Capital, a Dallas investment bank that specializes in financial institutions.
Brooks, who worked with Texas Security early in its life, noted that the bank in the first quarter had zero non-performing assets, a banking term for delinquent loans and foreclosed real estate. It also had a healthy $22.4 million in equity as of that point, Brooks added.
“It looks like (things are) going according to plan,” Brooks said.