Maine's oldest bank comes to Portland's Old Port
Photo / Renee Cordes
Saco & Biddeford Savings opened its first branch in Portland today. The new site is located at 136 Commercial St.
Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution opened its first branch in Portland on Monday, hanging its shingle in the Old Port as it nears its 190th anniversary.
The new site is at 136 Commercial St. near the water, in a brick building adjacent to the parking lot for DiMillo’s restaurant.
“We scouted around for a location, but it was not that difficult,” Bob Quentin, the bank’s president, CFO and treasurer, told Mainebiz. “We made a couple of trips to Portland and just came across this space and were really intrigued by it.”
The new branch will be staffed by four employees, one of whom is a new hire.
“We had a nice pool of applicants,” said Quentin. “Generally, recruiting can be difficult right now, so we were really pleased with the response that we had.”
The bank was founded in 1827 in Saco, where its Main Street office includes customer space as well as corporate offices, and employs about 85 people.
It expanded into in Old Orchard in 1952, Scarborough in 1995, South Portland in 2000, the Biddeford Crossing Shopping Center in 2006, and Westbrook in 2009. It also has an operations center in Saco’s industrial park that opened in 2006.
“As we opened branches in Cumberland County, we realized a pretty significant amount of our business was coming not just from the Portland area, but from Portland itself,” said CEO Kevin P. Savage.
Outside its main location the bank employs 10 in Old Orchard Beach, eight in Scarborough, nine in South Portland, eight at Biddeford Crossing, nine in Westbrook and 30 in Saco. It also owns Paquin & Carroll Insurance, whose 30 employees work mainly at the insurer’s Biddeford headquarters with a few at bank branches.
Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution had $878.4 million in assets at the end of 2016, compared to $863.7 million a year earlier.
Its latest expansion comes a month after Machias Savings Bank opened a branch in Portland at 193 Middle St., bringing its statewide tally to 18. Gorham Savings Bank is also refurbishing the Grand Trunk building at 1 India St. in Portland.
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