Growing bank unveiled as $540 million development's first office tenant
Nashville Business Journal
By Meg Garner
June 24, 2019
ServisFirst Bancshares Inc. is ready to up its Nashville profile. To do so, the Birmingham-based lender has inked a deal to double its local office space and relocate to Broadwest, one of Nashville's highest-profile projects.
ServisFirst is set to occupy the entire second floor of the $540 million project's 21-story office tower, located at 1600 West End Ave., Bradford Vieira, the bank's regional CEO, first confirmed to the Nashville Business Journal. Additionally, Vieira said ServisFirst will move its lone local branch to the three-story building that will separate the project's two towers.
ServisFirst (Nasdaq: SFBS) is the first named office tenant for the massive mixed-use project, which has been closely tracked since the Propst family purchased the once-dormant site, previously known as West End Summit. Broadwest's office tower will be the largest multi-tenant office created in Nashville since the Pinnacle at Symphony Place tower opened in late 2009.
"For banks, location and visibility are paramount," Vieira said. "When the Propst family announced this project, I immediately thought that it would be the perfect location. … By moving to this location and taking on a bigger footprint, it will help expedite [ServisFirst's goal of having $1 billion in local assets]." (Vieira noted the Propsts have been ServisFirst clients since the bank launched in 2005.)
Vieira hopes the new space will allow him to more than double ServisFirst's local headcount. ServisFirst currently has 29 local employees, including the team Vieira recently snagged from First Tennessee Bank.
At the end of March, ServisFirst had $637 million in local assets and $422 million in local deposits, according to Vieira, who said Nashville is the bank's second-largest market in terms of assets. From a size perspective, ServisFirst's Nashville presence is slightly larger than Belle Meade-based Truxton Trust Co. and Green Hills-based InsBank, which have $489 million and $522 million in total assets, respectively.
ServisFirst will move in March 2021, according to Vieira. Until then, the bank will remain in its current space inside the Midtown high-rise formerly known as Palmer Plaza, at 1801 West End Ave.
"ServisFirst is a welcomed strategic tenant for Broadwest and community users will benefit greatly by having a high-quality, full-service bank readily accessible in the project's strategic location," Chris Brown, the Propst Development executive spearheading the project, said in a statement. "I have known many of the executives of ServisFirst for years and their strong banking lineage along with growth plans will be a great fit for the Broadwest office tower."
The $540 million project will feature two towers, separated by a plaza the size of a football field, as well as a low-rise building with 125,000 square feet of retail and so-called "creative office" space. The 34-story tower across from ServisFirst's future office will include a 237-room Hilton Conrad and 196 luxury condos.