SOMETIME SOON, THE EXECUTIVE TEAM running Colorado Springs, Colo.–based Classic Homes hopes to buy or start up a bank, through which Classic would expand its mortgage and title businesses.
Last year, Classic merged its title and mortgage companies with The Corundum Group, a financial consulting and investment services firm. That merger created Central Bancorp, a holding company that is 51 percent owned by Classic's principals—Chairman Jeff Smith, CEO Doug Stimple, CFO George Lentz, and Executive Vice President of Marketing Dan Winter. Bancorp has applied for a bank charter and has hired Scott Yeoman, a 25-year commercial banking veteran, who is the proposed president of Central Bank & Trust.
Classic's management team declined BUILDER's interview requests. But Yeoman notes that Smith and Lentz came from the banking industry and confirms a report in the Colorado Springs Gazette that the owners want to use the bank to boost Classic's mortgage operations—which made $225 million in loans in 2006—to more than $1 billion in annual loans within a decade and to expand the bank itself to five branches over that period.
However, the bank won't do any direct business with the home builder because, Yeoman explains, regulators frown upon lending institutions engaging in activities with insiders.
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Colorado Springs, CO.
