Bank Rollout Strategy Targets DFW, Houston, Austin

Farmer's team is in the midst of talks with a couple of Fortune 100 companies that will be the real spark for the project and could speed up the development timeline. He is predicting that the majority of land sales will be closing in late 2002 or early 2003. Nonetheless, he expects ground will break in the fourth quarter on a 100,000-sf build-to-suit or spec project that is part of a total 600,000 sf planned for the property. Interior build-out is under way on a four-star, 286-room Westin Beechwood Hotel and the Creeks at Beechwood, a championship golf course, is up and running.

First American's chairman and CEO John Dienes tells GlobeSt.com the strategic positioning and ground zero opportunity had played a significant role in the Beechwood Business Park decision. "The future looks very bright indeed," he says, "and we want to be there with the infrastructure in place." The 5,000-sf Beechwood project, carrying an estimated $800,000 price tag, will break ground in 120 days. The 1.5 acres is located on the southwest corner of Championship Parkway and Texas 114.

Bill Atkinson, president and COO of First American Bank, tells GlobeSt.com that the DFW push started 18 months ago after building up business in second-tier cities since its founding in 1988. Its existing DFW locations are located in Weatherford, Azle, Las Colinas, Plano and Lincoln Park. In 90 days, Dallas will be getting a drive-through with mini-lobby branch at Park Lane, he says. The 18-month strategy calls for 12 to 15 full-service banking locations in DFW. By mid-2002, openings are ticketed for Grapevine, Southlake, Bedford, Flower Mound, Allen, Frisco, Coppell and Richardson.

First American had kicked off its Houston expansion earlier this year. It too will be getting 12 to 15 banking locations in an 18-month rollout strategy. Austin has four locations up and running and a fifth will open by summer's end, according to Atkinson. Another three to four branches will open in Austin in the coming year.

Atkinson says the carefully plotted plan most often is requiring the bank to buy land and build instead of converting existing facilities, although that has occurred in some instances. First American is a privately owned bank of the Bryan-based Adam Corp./Group. It has grown from a takeover mix of 11 failed thrifts in West Texas to a 75-location operation in 40 Texas cities and assets of about $2.5 billion.