While Colonial Bank President Mark Daigle emphasizes his company’s Main Street-style friendliness and personal touch, he’s also thinking big — and Northern Nevada is a key beachhead for his strategy.

For Colonial, the goal is to continue its strong presence in the commercial real estate sector while ramping up growth of other business products. Although based in Las Vegas, the company’s staffing levels in the state are nearly equal: 98 employees work in the North and 118 work in the South.

Indeed, “This certainly is not a stepchild market for us,” says the Vegas-based exec, who spends a few days every other week in Reno. During a recent visit, the dynamic Daigle was meeting with local branch people with a goal toward “building more capacity, more products.” He began his career as a teller with SunTrust in Orlando, Fla., nearly 20 years ago.

With 15 branches in the Silver State and several planned new branches, Northern Nevada is playing a key part in Colonial’s expansion, which includes moving from being a strong lender at the commercial real estate level to a bigger player on the consumer banking side.

Growth plans8

With six locations in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Fallon and Stateline, Colonial has “just closed on a piece of property in Gardnerville and has an active letter of intent to build in the Damonte Ranch area,” says Daigle.

In terms of funding commercial enterprises, Daigle says the firm has been strong in the office and mini-warehouse construction arena. “We try to stay within the $25 million threshold,” he says talking about typical deals. For loans at a higher level, Colonial says it’s not unusual to find other banks to partner with to meet customers’ growth and expansion needs.

Daigle says it’s not necessary “to have a branch on every corner, but to be reasonably close” to fast-growing areas where employment is steady and people are moving. At this point, “Our strategy in the next few years is to open five to seven branches between the two regions” on an annual basis, an investment that clearly will help build momentum.

Daigle’s bank is part of Colonial BankGroup, which is headquartered in Montgomery, Ala. It broke into the Nevada market in 1998 with the acquisition of Commercial Bank. In 2005, Colonial had more than $700 million in deposits statewide.