Here's the next site where Bank of Tampa is expanding
By Margie Manning, Finance Editor
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 29, 2017

It was a groundbreaking in name only as The Bank of Tampa executives and directors put on hardhats and picked up shovels to ceremoniously mark the start of construction at the bank's newest office.

Much of the outer structure already is in place at the new Clearwater office, at 900 S. Fort Harrison Ave., but a groundbreaking planned for earlier in the year was delayed to accommodate everyone's schedule, a spokeswoman for the bank said.

It's the third Pinellas County office for Bank of Tampa, one of the largest banks headquartered in the Tampa Bay area, with nearly $1.6 billion in assets, and will join a downtown St. Petersburg office that opened in 2012 and a Largo office that opened earlier this year.

Unlike many other banks that are contracting their branch networks as customers increasingly use online and mobile banking options, Bank of Tampa continues to expand its brick-and-mortar presence, said Scott Gault, Pinellas County market president.

"A lot of banks have pulled back on building branches but we call them offices because we house our commercial bankers in there as well. We still feel it's very important to invest in the community,” Gault said. "This is not something we are leasing. We have invested in Clearwater and we feel it's important to have some brick and mortar throughout the county. We just don't need to be on every corner in the county.”

Bank of Tampa will continue to spread out through the region, Gault said. The bank opened a loan production office in downtown Sarasota about two months ago, and has filed an application to open a full-service office in the same location. There also are eight offices in Hillsborough County.

Clearwater is a strategic location for the bank, because it can easily serve clients from the site, Gault said. Between six and eight commercial and personal bankers are expected to work at the site.

Craig West, a veteran Clearwater banker who most recently has been a private relationship manager at the St. Petersburg office, was named market director for the new office. Prior to joining the Bank of Tampa, West was vice president and branch manager at Synovus Bank.

A rendering of the Bank of Tampa's new Clearwater office, scheduled to open in spring 2018.

The new office will be about 3,000 square feet, which is about 1,000 square feet smaller than other Bank of Tampa offices, because of the footprint of the lot on which it is located. Pinellas County property records show the bank purchased the land last October for $825,000. The cost of building and equipping the new office was not immediately available. The office is expected to open in the spring.

ABI Companies Inc. is the general contractor. Harvard Jolly is the architecture firm.