We’ve all heard them. There is no shortage of cheesy jokes about bankers. By the very nature of their profession, they are easy prey to comedians. What you don’t hear very often is the truly good things community bankers do. Some success stories have enough “feel good” to supply the Hallmark Channel with a line up for six months. For the sake of explaining the impact of community banking, let’s take a look at the fictional town of East Park.
East Park was a thriving downtown village in the 50’s, 60’s and the early 70’s. Huge buildings with charming storefronts lined the streets. At the heart of the downtown district was the local drug store where people sat on swivel chairs and caught up with each other over a grilled cheese sandwich and a root beer float. People liked that you could get your prescription, buy a birthday card and have lunch, all right there in downtown East Park.
The demise of East Park’s downtown was something that took place over an extended period of time, but the most notable migration took place when suburban malls entered the shopping scene in the late 1970s. The mass exodus from the center of downtown East Park to the suburban shopping mall on the outskirts of the county left East Park’s main street looking like a Lonesome Dove version of an abandoned village. Manufacturing firms that were present there for decades disappeared. The once charming and decorative buildings that showed so much life became dilapidated and uninhabitable.
Fast forward 35 years. A visionary developer in 2019 who lives and works in the community sees the potential of reviving downtown, and wants to rebuild and repair it. His friend, the local East Park banker, sees the potential too, and loans the developer $250,000. Now the developer has the capital needed to start a renovation project. He uses the working capital to repair and restructure one of the old buildings. He rents the bottom level to an architectural firm, and builds contemporary apartments for rent on the top two levels.
After more progress occurs on several other buildings, young professional people who left their hometown of East Park several years ago heard about the revitalization project. They decide to move back to East Park because the community is showing signs of life again. These same young professional people like downtown living, so they rent the trendy, modern apartments above the architectural firm. There is lots to do again in downtown East Park because the community bank also loaned money to open a new café down the street. Local business executives meet there each morning to have a cup of coffee and a crescent roll while catching up on the town’s activities. The farmer’s market got wind of all the development, and decided to locate in the newly revived downtown area too.
Meanwhile, a couple of towns over, a different developer wants to renovate some older property because her town is in close proximity to a thriving college community where the cost of living has become unaffordable for many. She sees the potential for her community to benefit by providing more affordable living options as an alternative. She needs working capital to renovate the older properties, so she calls her community banker. Once she borrows the money for the construction project, the renovation begins.
Are you getting the bigger picture? The properties in both of these scenarios are no longer uninhabitable, but actually generating tax revenue for the community. These stories may be fictional, but they are actually not that far from reality, and it all begins with a community banker who believes in making it happen. So the next time you grab a burger or a cup of coffee at your favorite downtown hangout, take a minute to thank a community banker. First Bank & Trust Company is pretty proud of ours.
East Park was a thriving downtown village in the 50’s, 60’s and the early 70’s. Huge buildings with charming storefronts lined the streets. At the heart of the downtown district was the local drug store where people sat on swivel chairs and caught up with each other over a grilled cheese sandwich and a root beer float. People liked that you could get your prescription, buy a birthday card and have lunch, all right there in downtown East Park.
The demise of East Park’s downtown was something that took place over an extended period of time, but the most notable migration took place when suburban malls entered the shopping scene in the late 1970s. The mass exodus from the center of downtown East Park to the suburban shopping mall on the outskirts of the county left East Park’s main street looking like a Lonesome Dove version of an abandoned village. Manufacturing firms that were present there for decades disappeared. The once charming and decorative buildings that showed so much life became dilapidated and uninhabitable.
Fast forward 35 years. A visionary developer in 2019 who lives and works in the community sees the potential of reviving downtown, and wants to rebuild and repair it. His friend, the local East Park banker, sees the potential too, and loans the developer $250,000. Now the developer has the capital needed to start a renovation project. He uses the working capital to repair and restructure one of the old buildings. He rents the bottom level to an architectural firm, and builds contemporary apartments for rent on the top two levels.
After more progress occurs on several other buildings, young professional people who left their hometown of East Park several years ago heard about the revitalization project. They decide to move back to East Park because the community is showing signs of life again. These same young professional people like downtown living, so they rent the trendy, modern apartments above the architectural firm. There is lots to do again in downtown East Park because the community bank also loaned money to open a new café down the street. Local business executives meet there each morning to have a cup of coffee and a crescent roll while catching up on the town’s activities. The farmer’s market got wind of all the development, and decided to locate in the newly revived downtown area too.
Meanwhile, a couple of towns over, a different developer wants to renovate some older property because her town is in close proximity to a thriving college community where the cost of living has become unaffordable for many. She sees the potential for her community to benefit by providing more affordable living options as an alternative. She needs working capital to renovate the older properties, so she calls her community banker. Once she borrows the money for the construction project, the renovation begins.
Are you getting the bigger picture? The properties in both of these scenarios are no longer uninhabitable, but actually generating tax revenue for the community. These stories may be fictional, but they are actually not that far from reality, and it all begins with a community banker who believes in making it happen. So the next time you grab a burger or a cup of coffee at your favorite downtown hangout, take a minute to thank a community banker. First Bank & Trust Company is pretty proud of ours.
“People working together make a community what it is, and a community without its people cannot survive. First Bank & Trust Company believes supporting community values creates a positive impact on growth and ensures a vibrant future for everyone involved,”
Jim McAlister- Commercial Lending, First Bank & Trust Company