Project creates 100 jobs
Independence Bank cut the ribbon Tuesday on its new $5 million Janet Reid Operations Center at 2426 St. Ann St., officially opening it for business.
Jacob Reid, the bank’s executive vice president, said the new 32,000-square-foot facility has already added 100 employees in Owensboro.
And more are on the way, he said.
The operations center was formerly inside the 14-year-old bank at 2425 Frederica St.
“Those offices are still full,” Reid said.
The 100 people working in the operations center are new, he said.
The operations center is named for Reid’s mother, who was the family-owned bank’s chief operations officer for 38 years.
In the past 20 years, Independence has grown from 22 employees to 390 and from $40 million in assets to more than $2 billion.
“We’ve seen phenomenal growth,” Reid said. “Yesterday, we opened our 25th location — in Frankfort.”
Candance Brake, president of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce, noted that Independence has been named one of the best places to work in Kentucky for 10 consecutive years.
“When you come to work at Independence Bank, you’ve got a career,” Mayor Tom Watson said.
Brake noted that before Independence Bank built its headquarters at 25th and Frederica in 2004, “this area was worn and tired. You made this area boom again.”
Judge-Executive Al Mattingly called Independence “truly a friend to this community.”
Independence Bank is now the fifth-largest in Kentucky.
It bought seven houses on the west side of the 2400 block of St. Ann Street several years ago to make room for the new operations center.
The building has a fitness center in the basement.
The first floor is home to the mailroom, risk management, compliance, deposit operations and operations departments.
The second floor houses credit analysis, loan operations, loan document preparation and mortgage operations.
And the third floor is home to information technology, cash management support, customer service specialists and electronic services.
By Keith Lawrence Messenger-Inquirer