Wintrust’s Town Bank raises profile in Milwaukee
Over the past year, company has opened four bank branches in city, introduced its downtown financial Center
At a time when many banks are scaling back on brick-and-mortar locations, Town Bank is raising its profile by doing just the opposite — and doing it in Milwaukee.
Over the past year, Town Bank, the Hartland-based Wisconsin subsidiary of Wintrust Financial Corp., has opened four bank branches in Milwaukee and recently introduced its downtown Wintrust Financial Center, which will be the company’s state headquarters for commercial banking at 731 N. Jackson St.
In addition to taking over the Marquette University Alumni Memorial Union branch on campus this year, Town Bank made a commitment to the school to invest $12 million over 10 years to fund scholarships, athletic and educational programming, and other events. It also is helping with Marquette’s new program for training future bankers.
Jay Mack, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Town Bank, said the expansion is the result of a strategic decision by Wintrust to heighten its visibility in Milwaukee, where it sees potential to provide banking services to more businesses and consumers.
“Obviously it’s the biggest city in the state, it’s the biggest metro area, and we want to be part of that. It’s a market we want to have big presence in. We see a big opportunity there,” Mack said.
Mack continued: “There are some good things going on in the city of Milwaukee — Fiserv Forum, Foxconn’s headquarters — a number of positive developments going on. So it’s a good time, we believe, to be investing in Milwaukee, expanding in Milwaukee and increasing our profile.”
Until now, Town Bank, which began as Delafield State Bank in 1998, has been mostly focused on the suburbs and counties other than Milwaukee County. In 20 years, it has grown to become the fourth-largest commercial bank based in Wisconsin, with assets topping $2 billion.
Town Bank’s parent company, Rosemont, Ill.-based Wintrust, operates under a different structure than many regional banks. Instead of putting all of its offices under the Wintrust banner, it lets Town Bank operate with its own Wisconsin charter and name. It does the same in Illinois with financial institutions it owns, such as Libertyville Bank & Trust Co. and Wheaton Bank & Trust.
The main commercial bank market for Wintrust Financial Corp., which posted a profit last year of $257.7 million, is Illinois. The bank also has a small presence in Indiana.
“They operate really a pool of community banks that have their own name, their own identity and really try to connect with the community. But they are all underneath the Wintrust umbrella,” said Terry McEvoy, a Portland, Maine-based bank analyst and managing director for Stephens Inc.
Wintrust also operates national businesses, such as a mortgage operation and specialty lending.
McEvoy said it isn’t surprising that Town Bank and Wintrust are raising their profile in Milwaukee.
“They publicly have talked about Milwaukee as a really good opportunity for them. That’s why they built that new downtown location with their name on it — to capitalize on those opportunities,” McEvoy said.
Businesses with annual revenues from $1 million to $250 million generally are the target customers for Town Bank, although Mack said the bank works with businesses with revenue below and above that range. The new Wintrust Financial Center will allow the bank to address the growing needs of middle-market businesses, commercial real estate developers and larger corporations, as well as serve the Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Madison markets, the bank says.
The local branches, which generate loans and deposits, also help the bank introduce its wealth management and other services to new customers.
Town Bank is looking for consumer customers in addition to business borrowers. The bank recently announced a branding partnership with Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater Group in which the bank’s name will be displayed at the box office and a Town Bank debit card will feature the Pabst Theater.
“They’re a Milwaukee communitybased organization,” Mack said of Pabst Theater Group, which also runs the Riverside Theater. “Their customer base — they draw from Milwaukee, they draw from Chicago. So from a demographic and a population standpoint, it’s a very good fit for us.”
Wisconsin-Illinois proximity also plays a part in Town Bank’s and Wintrust’s partnership with Marquette, where it has a campus branch previously operated by U.S. Bank.
“Northern Illinois and Milwaukee and Wisconsin are big areas Marquette draws from. That’s where we’re located — that’s where Wintrust is located — so the opportunity to establish long-term relationships with the students is intriguing to us,” Mack said. “And the alumni base for Marquette is very Milwaukee-centric and Chicago-centric. We would like to increase the Wintrust visibility and Town Bank visibility with the alumni network.”
Last year, Marquette started a commercial banking program to train bank executives of the future, and Wintrust has jumped in to help, said Kent Belasco, who is director of the program. Wintrust offers internships and last summer hired two of the program’s first five graduates.
“Wintrust, through Town Bank, has been an outstanding partner to Marquette and definitely to my program,” Belasco said. “We are in the process of developing the revolving loan fund, provided by Town Bank, and in conjunction with WWBIC (Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp.), to allow students in my program to actually analyze prospective small-business clients.”
Belasco added: “This is a game changer for us and allows students to learn credit analysis first-hand, and prepares them to be analysts on day one when they enter the bank.”
While Milwaukee has been a focus for new branches this year, Wintrust and Town Bank bulked up on branches in a big way in 2014 when it bought 11 locations from Troy, Michigan-based Talmer Bank, giving it a presence in Wisconsin communities such as Kenosha, Burlington, Lake Geneva, Darlington and Monroe. It also has acquired smaller banks, such as Foundations Bank in Pewaukee in 2016.
Town Bank now has 25 branches and about 250 employees.
Now established in downtown Milwaukee with three branches and the Wintrust Financial Center — Town Bank also opened a branch in Milwaukee’s Uptown neighborhood last fall — it appears more growth is on the way.
“There are other parts of metro Milwaukee, other parts of southern Wisconsin, that we’re evaluating as we speak,” Mack said.