Mercantile Bank Coming to Downtown Midland
MIDLAND, Mich. — Mercantile Bank of Michigan, a $3.6 billion bank based in Grand Rapids, is heading to Main Street. The bank will open a loan production office in downtown Midland, the City Paper has learned. Mercantile confirmed the news on Tuesday.
“We made the announcement internally, today at the bank,” Mercantile Senior Vice President of Mortgage & Consumer Lending Scott Setlock told the City Paper. “We have signed a lease and it’s not effective until March 1. But we are signed.”
The bank will occupy 109 E. Main St., the former site of Baird Private Wealth Management, which recently moved to Ridgecrest Drive. Mr. Setlock says that the location won’t be completely ready until late-April.
“We’re a full service bank, we just happen to be coming to the Midland market with a loan production office, focusing on loans. We have 45-or-so branches throughout the state of Michigan,” Mr. Setlock told the City Paper.
“Right now we’re going to give it a fresh coat of paint, we’re going to get the carpet cleaned, we’re working on signage out front, we’ll change out the awning. The thing that will take the longest time is actually the furniture, so it’s about a 8-week lead time, so we’re really looking at April, late-April,” he told the City Paper. “The lenders that we’ll have representing us in that space, they’ll be working out of there before all that happens.”
Those lenders include long-time Chemical Bank mortgage loan officers Sue Moody and Brad Schalk. Ms. Moody says that Mercantile approached her with an opportunity and that it was her idea to include Mr. Schalk.
“I think that Mercantile’s core values aligned with my core values, and I’m excited for Mercantile to be coming to Midland,” she told the City Paper.
Mr. Schalk echoed those comments as well.
“Sue and I are both excited to get back to a community bank feel and environment, he told the City Paper.
Mercantile comes to town after Chemical Bank was recently swallowed by TCF Bank in what both banks said was a “merger of equals.”
“We sat next to each other at Chemical Bank, our offices were side-by-side. And we both were having some frustrations with processes and whatnot, not very happy with how our customers were being serviced, and one day she says, ‘Well … let’s go have lunch,’” Mr. Schalk told the City Paper.
Mr. Schalk said that Ms. Moody had already mentioned his name to Mercantile Bank officials and fully made him aware of her future plans over that lunch.
Ms. Moody said that there are bigger plans in the works for Midland, but that those are not yet set in stone.
“Chemical, and now TCF, they’re certainly a good competitor of ours, we certainly bump into them in all of the markets we serve. I would say it has less to do with that being the old stomping ground, if you will, for Chemical, more to do with just finding the right people to join our team,” Mr. Setlock told the City Paper.
“We’re excited to grow and come to Midland, we think it’s a market that will really feed off of the Mercantile way of doing mortgages and doing things right and we think Midland will be responsive to that,” Mr. Setlock told the City Paper.
This article has been updated to include comments from Mr. Schalk.
Michael Westendorf is the chairman and executive editor of Chemical City Paper. As Executive Editor, he leads the City Paper’s news coverage and editorial team.
Just what Main Street needs. Who ever thinks this is a good fit must not be looking at Main Street as a destination for people outside of Midland to want to visit this area.