NEW BANKER IN TOWN: BEDFFORD ‘WILL’ BOYCE

By Dave Yochum.  Brand new market share reports from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. show big gains in banking deposits in Cornelius.

Between June of 2015 and June of 2019, deposits in Cornelius deposits rose 35.9 percent to $1.098 billion.

And, more is on the way. Chase Bank plans a new branch on 1.5 acres of prime property at the northeast corner of Jetton Road and West Catawba Avenue, more or less catty-corner to Aquesta’s main branch. Chase will demolish the Rite-Aid building and erect a new one-story 3000 square foot office with a two-lane drive through.

Less than a half mile west, Select Bank has opened a full-service branch in an existing building on the corner of Nantz Road. It comes complete with a new coat of paint and a drive-through.

“Cornelius is in the heart of Lake Norman and was a natural fit for us to expand from our presence in Charlotte,” said Bedford Boyce, market executive for Select, a fast-growing 19-branch bank based in Dunn, NC.

SILVIA

Nationally known economist John Silvia said the growth trends in and around Cornelius will continue. He wouldn’t splash water on the lake as an economic development agent unto itself. “You have a fairly large lake near a big growing city,” Silvia said. You don’t have that in a lot of places in America.”

Another “phenomenal positive,” from an economic development perspective, is net in-migration. The demographics of people moving here are runs toward those with higher incomes and higher levels of education. “You’re not bringing in a lot of the non-educated. In-migration here is very different from the immigrants that grew cities like New York City generations ago,” Silvia said.

ENGEL AT NEWSMAKERS BREAKFAST

It’s music to the ears of bankers. Jim Engel, CEO of Cornelius-based Aquesta, said the demographic moving also has a strong component of business owners and professionals—providing “somewhat of a multiplier effect because then you have the service business and their employment too.”

It’s a different story from 2006 when Engel started the bank. Back then, “you’d move here in order to commute into Charlotte. Now there are people moving here to work in Mooresville and Cornelius,” he said.

Economist Silvia said over the next 20 years we “will see some blips—if there’s a national recession we’re not immune—but over the next 20 years were seeing continued growth…major new corporate relocations, that just fuels all the subcontractors and the service contracts it becomes self-perpetuating.”

Banking on Cornelius

28031 total bank deposits:

2019: $1.098 billion

2015: $808 million

Increase: 35.9%