The Stamford Advocate

September 12, 2006
Darien-Rowayton Bank pleased with its progress
By Richard Lee, Assistant Business Editor


Fresh off the opening last month of their first permanent location in Rowayton, organizers of the new Darien-Rowayton Bank are looking forward to moving out of their temporary office on the Post Road in Darien into larger space formerly occupied by First County Bank at 19 Corbin Drive in Darien.

About a half-dozen bank employees will move to Corbin Drive by the end of the month into space more than twice the size of the 1,100-square-foot temporary office.

"We're growing faster than we planned. We can't handle it at our storefront," said John Bowes, the bank's chairman and chief executive officer, who hopes to host grand openings at both facilities on Sept. 30.

Darien-Rowayton Bank, which raised $13 million in startup capital before its opening in Darien in April, had total assets of more than $23 million on June 30, according to a report it filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

It plans to move into its new 13,000-square-foot headquarters on the Post Road in Darien by the end of next year.

"I'd like to put a shovel in the ground in the fall," said Bowes, who expects the town's Planning and Zoning Commission to vote on the project this week.

Bowes said he was pleased with the bank's progress.

Business at the new 2,500-square-foot branch at 138 Rowayton Ave. in the Rowayton section of Norwalk is off to a good start, he said.

"It's a perfect location in the village with a vault, safe deposit boxes and an ATM," Bowes said.

The branch, with its half-dozen employees, joins Fairfield County Bank Corp., the only other bank in Rowayton village, which is reconstructing its branch and should be finished in about four months.

"There is room for two banks in the village," Bowes said.

"It's busy, affluent and fits into our plans," he said.

"There is little likelihood that more financial institutions are going to locate in the village," said Brian Griffin, vice president of the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce.

"There's little space in Rowayton, and the residents like the village feel," he said, adding that branches of large national or regional banks would not be as accepted as community banks.

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