The $132 million sale
of Orlando-based First Green Bank to Seacoast Bank likely will result in closed branches — and possible employee layoffs.
The sale of Orlando-based First Green Bank to Seacoast Bank will likely result in closed branches and possible employee layoffs, company officials said Tuesday.
The $132 million deal for First Green, which has built its name on environmental efforts that include solar-powered branches and sustainability incentives for its customers, is likely to close by year’s end, Seacoast Chairman and CEO Dennis Hudson III said on a Tuesday morning conference call. Kenneth LaRoe, founder and chairman of First Green, said he will leave the company.
First Green’s seven branches, located in the Orlando, Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale areas, will take on the Seacoast name. Several are located within 3 miles of a Seacoast branch, Hudson said, which will play a part in some closings.
Most, perhaps all, of First Green’s 110 employees are likely to be kept on by Seacoast, LaRoe said.
LaRoe’s next steps — “I’m doing a lot of soul-searching, as you can imagine,” he said — will include starting a small-business investment company that adheres to the environmental, social and governance values First Green has employed.
Seacoast employs about 200 people in the Orlando area, including financial operations, branches and a call center, executives said. When possible, open positions at Seacoast will be held available for First Green workers making the transition, a talent pool that officials called “tremendous people who have operated together as a team for a long time.
“It’s critically important to retain the people who connect to customers,” Hudson said. “We’ll build a combined team of folks from both organizations.”
The environmentally friendly features at some First Green branches could play a part in deciding which ones Seacoast will keep, Hudson said.
“It’s quite impressive the job they’ve done with physical locations,” Hudson said, adding that it’s too early to know how First Green’s environmental and social approach will apply to keeping customers after the deal. LaRoe said he believes his employees who remain with Seacoast will continue to live by that environmentally friendly approach.
Hudson called Orlando an important market in part because it has led the state in job creation.
LaRoe in 2014 successfully pushed for a “living wage” in which his workers would make a starting salary of $30,000 with a $1,000 annual raise.
“We set out in 2009 to establish a differentiated bank with an environmental and social mission. As we take the next step in our bank’s journey, we are delighted to partner with Seacoast, a highly respected institution with a more than 90-year history of serving Florida,” LaRoe said in a news release late Monday.
Neither party is a stranger to deals of this size. LaRoe in 1999 founded Florida Choice Bank, which was bought seven years later by an Alabama bank.
In 2015, Stuart-based Seacoast bought Lake Mary-based Floridian Bank. It also acquired the Orlando banking operations of BMO Harris Bank that year and bought Winter Park-based BankFirst a year earlier.
Hudson said communicating with customers will be important, and Seacoast will rely on experience in helping people and businesses know what’s available to them.
“We want to work with the customers, and also importantly with the team at First Green,” Hudson said.
Under the deal, First Green shareholders will receive 0.7324 shares of Seacoast common stock for each share of First Green common stock.
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida is based in Stuart. The bank has 49 branches statewide, from Palm Beach County to Orlando. Tuesday’s conference call can be replayed at SeacoastBanking.com.