North Las Vegas landing its own bank

Kevin Rademacher

Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.

Amid a flood of development activity, North Las Vegas appears on the verge of getting its own bank.

Mayor Michael Montandon on Wednesday said the Bank of North Las Vegas is organizing and plans to open its first branch at the corner of Simmons Street and Centennial Parkway in that city.

Former Silver State Bank executive James York has been enlisted as president of the bank. York said he would wait until the bank made its formal regulatory filings before discuss the details of the bank.

"It's pretty exciting," Montandon said. "We are the largest city in the United States without a bank chartered in our city. Mesquite has got a community bank ... The time is just right."

John Gaynor, chief executive of Bank of Nevada, agreed.

"They are certainly long overdue for their own chartered bank," he said.

North Las Vegas is Nevada's fourth largest city with a population of about 150,000. City planners expect North Las Vegas to top 500,000 resident by 2020. The U.S. Census Bureau said North Las Vegas was the second fastest growing city in the country between 2000 and 2002 with a population increase of 17.7 percent, edging out Henderson and trailing only the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Ariz.

In May 2003 the master-planned community Aliante opened in North Las Vegas. The development is expected to eventually have as many as 7,500 homes and 20,000 residents on its 1,905 acres.

The city also has been riding a wave of economic development success, attracting several businesses including Coaster Converters, a plastic bag manufacturer with more than 100 employees; and May Manufacturing LLC, a spa maker with 42 employees. Trading card maker Upper Deck Co. also has received state incentives to move 75 jobs in its warehousing and distribution operation to the city.

News of the North Las Vegas bank comes just a few weeks after the long-rumored Nevada Citizens Bank announced its formal organization and plans for a downtown Las Vegas branch.

While cited by that bank's executives as a key component, other local bankers responded to the downtown location with a lukewarm response. There were few reservations about North Las Vegas.

"North Las Vegas is joining the ranks of what has happened in Las Vegas proper," said Gaynor, whose bank also is planning a North Las Vegas branch. "Developers are finding land values are less prohibitive. Mayor Montandon is very pro-business. North Las Vegas has a lot to offer."

With that, businesses also are looking to North Las Vegas, and where the businesses go, banks will follow.

"That is probably a very true statement," Gaynor said.

Bill Martin, chief executive of Nevada State Bank, said a successful bank will not focus solely on a single corner of the thriving Las Vegas Valley.

"It's pretty hard to be a 'community' bank," he said, adding that through courier services and broad attention to the valley as a whole, locally-based banks succeed with a far reaching market definition.

A North Las Vegas-based bank, however, makes sense, Martin said.

"Look at all the people that are out there and that are going to be out there," he said.