Staff Report
Published Jan. 23, 2012
Southern First Bank plans to break ground this quarter on its third Midlands office, bank officials said.
 Southern First Bank plans to break ground this quarter on its third Midlands office in Forest Acres. Officials said the exterior of the new branch will be similar to the bank’s office in Lexington, pictured here. (Photo/Provided) |
“We are extremely excited about opening our new office,” said Art Seaver, the company’s chief executive officer.
Southern First, which has offices in Lexington and Cayce, is part of Southern First Bancshares, a Greenville-based holding company. Southern First Bancshares has four offices in the Upstate that operate under the name of Greenville First Bank.
With about $554,675,000 in deposits at the end of the third quarter of 2011, Southern First ranks eighth among banks headquartered in South Carolina.
Southern First moved to the Midlands in 2007 and has grown local deposits to about $140 million in its Lexington and Cayce offices.
The bank decided to open a third office in the Forest Acres area because a number of its customers live there, said Justin Strickland, Southern First president.
“We’ve been planning this for a long time and finally got to find the right location,” Strickland said.
The bank will be hiring five employees to staff the full-service Forest Acres office, Strickland said.
According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. records, the company has about 100 employees statewide.
An Internet cafe will be one of the new office’s features. Customers will be able to bring in their laptop computers, connect to the Wi-Fi, access their accounts online and work with their banker, Strickland said.
The exterior of the Forest Acres branch will be similar to Southern First’s office at 5346 Sunset Blvd. in Lexington, Strickland said.
The office is being designed by Michael Keeshen & Associates of Greenville. A date for the groundbreaking has not been set.
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