Corrections or additions?
These articles were prepared for the July 18, 2001 edition of U.S.
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People to Watch: Tom Gray
Tom Gray aims to start his third bank this fall. His
first was Carnegie Bank on Alexander Road, and he sold it to Sovereign
Bank. His second was Grand Bank NA, on Route 1 South and he sold it
to MetLife. If his just-submitted application is approved, his third
bank will start out at Five Points in Hamilton, a location that used
to belong to his first bank, Carnegie.
The name? Don’t give up on a good name is Gray’s motto, so the new
entity will be called “Grand Bank NA.”
Gray, 51, went to Seton Hall, Class of 1971, and immediately went
to work for the state office of the control of currency (OCC). Then
he worked at People’s National Bank in Denville and Lafayette Bank
in Bridgeport, Connecticut, before coming to Princeton to found
Carnegie
Bank in 1988. He grew it to $500 million and sold it to Sovereign
Bank, then started Grand Bank N.A.
It was a surprise, Gray says, when MetLife came to him with an offer
to buy Grand Bank. Metlife was not after the assets or the clients,
but merely the charter. That sale went through on March 1.
“MetLife
was never really interested in the customers and assets of Grand
Bank,”
says Gray. He has just applied for the bank’s federal charter and
expects to open in the last quarter of this year.
Gray has apparently made lots of money for his investing cohorts,
because he has already finished the new Grand Bank’s initial
capitalization
of $6 million. The shares cost $85,000 and “as little as one share
has been spoken for,” he says. “That will get us up to about
$100 million. As soon as we have the deal firmed with MetLife to
purchase
the assets and the liabilities that went with Grand Bank, we will
raise some additional capital, probably about another $6 or $6.5
million,
to grow the bank to the $200 million level. Hopefully, that will
happen
shortly after opening the doors.”
Gray will start off as chairman, president and CEO of the new bank,
and he expects Mark Wolters will take over in a year. Wolters has
to stay on as president and CEO of the new MetLife Bank through
August,
2002. After MetLife relinquishes its space on Route 1 South, Gray
will take it over for Grand Bank’s new headquarters.
Single, Gray has a 23-year-old son who is about to start graduate
school in London. He has a second home in Florida where, handily
enough,
he has another bank property. “Several of us bought Admiralty
Bank in Florida in 1998,” he says, “and I fly back and forth
twice a month.”
Grand Bank, National Association, 1 Edinburg Road,Hamilton 08619. Thomas L. Gray Jr. Box 561, Kingston, 08528.908-253-1000.Top Of PageCommerce BankCommerce Bank NA, Route 31 & Delaware Avenue,Pennington08534. 856-751-9000. Www.commerceonline.comThe Pennington/Hopewell area — a location muchcovetedby new banks and community banks — is getting a branch of CommerceBank. The opening on Saturday, July 28, will come complete with facepainting and clowns, plus the launching of a free coin-counting PennyArcade.”We have always stressed customer service and have seen ourselvesnot as a bank but as a retailer,” says Sandra R. Martin, bankspokesperson.To that end, the bank hired InterArch of Mt. Laurel to design its3,600 square-foot look-alike branches and contracts with localcompanies,in this case Clemens Construction of Clarksville Road, to do thebuilding.Each costs $1 million, from footings to landscaping. “All ourbuildings have the same exterior and interior layout for the arcadeand teller station,” says Martin. “Because we see ourselvesas a retailer, it is important that each and every one is recognizableas a Commerce Bank branch.”With $9.3 billion in assets and nearly 160 branches in the three-statearea, the bank bills itself as the “fastest-growing independentfinancial services retailer” and hopes to open 35 new officesthis year alone. Though chartered at both the state and federallevels,it calls itself a regional community bank.Vernon W. Hill, the chairman and president, was the son of a bankerin Virginia and founded this bank in 1973. The Pennington branch’smanager is John Heichel, formerly branch manager for First WashingtonState Bank on Alexander Road. A Penn State graduate, Class of 1983,he has also worked at Mellon Bank in State College, Pennsylvania,and was branch manager at Summit Bank, New Providence.A natural promotional tie-in, Commerce Bank believes, is with thename in Pennington, which has its own Pennytown section — andthe bank has a real penny arcade complete with a coin countingmachine.Unlike counting machines in supermarkets, which take a tithe of thetake, this one is absolutely free, even for non-customers.Commerce Banks are open seven days a week, which is very unusual fora bank branch that is not located in a supermarket, and willoffer free personal checking for the first year, with a minimumbalanceof $100 in years following.Top Of PageHopewell Community BankHopewell Valley Community Bank (HWDY), 4 Route31, Box 999, Pennington 08534. James Hyman, president and CEO.609-466-2900;fax, 609-730-9144. Home page: www.hvcbonline.comA community bank that started out in Hopewell has justraised more than $2 million in a secondary stock offering, says JamesHyman, president and CEO. “We are able to take in money throughthe end of the week, but the offering has done very well,” saysHyman. “Anything above $1 million would have been fine.”The bank now has $58 million in assets and just over $43 million inloans. With the additional $2 million, the bank will have $8.2 millionin capital, allowing the bank to grow to $82 million in assets.The bank has bought a former Summit branch at 8300 Quakerbridge Roadand will open this facility as a full service branch with drive-upwindows in the fall. It has a branch in Pennytown Shopping Villageand next year hopes to have a fourth location.Top Of PageNew MillenniumNew Millennium Bank (NMNB), 57 Livingston Avenue,New Brunswick 08901. Chris Van Der Stad, president and CFO.732-729-1100;fax, 732-729-4399. Home page: www.nmbonline.comThis two-year-old state chartered commercial bank hasmade a 30-day extension for its secondary offering of common stock.The new deadline is July 31. The over-the-counter “pink sheet”stock is priced at $20 per unit, with am minimum purchase of 125units.With each unit comes a warrant for purchase of an additional shareat $21 in 2002 or $22.50 in 2003.”We are capitalized at $6 million, and our assets are right around$60 million with deposits at $55 million. With another $5 millionwe could grow to $110 million,” says Chris Van Der Stad, presidentand CFO. Stock sales were “slower than we had anticipated,”he says. A graduate of Montclair State University, Class of 1979,he was formerly the comptroller-vice president of United NationalBank in Bridgewater.This is the fourth bank that 78-year-old Mayo Sisler, the chairmanand CEO, has started. In 1986 he founded the New Era Bank in Somerset,and was chairman, president and CEO until its merger with UnitedNationalBank in 1995. New Millennium Bank opened in July, 1999 and added abranch location in Franklin Township in 2000.New Millennium Bank emphasizes neighborhood banking for consumersand businesses, and is focusing on the growing minority populationin the New Brunswick area. It has Spanish speaking tellers andcustomerservice people. Says Van Der Stad. “We have 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.weekdayhours for the drive through and walk up windows in New Brunswick,and Thursday hours to 7 p.m. everywhere.”New Millennium Bank, 57 Livingston Avenue, NewBrunswick 08901. Chris Van Der Stad, president and CFO. 732-729-1100or 888-592-4646; fax, 732-729-4399. Home page:www.nmbonline.comTop Of PageExpansionsThe building at 353 Nassau Street, formerly occupiedby the Center for Healthcare Strategies (CHS), now houses NovazymePharmaceuticals Inc, a drug development firm. CHS is a nonprofit thatadministers health care programs funded by foundations, principallythe Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It moved from 6,000 feet on NassauStreet to 12,000 feet on Lenox Drive.Novazyme, a drug development firm, is doing research on Pompe’sdisease.The firm has raised $24 million in two rounds of preferred stock frominvestors that include Nassau Street-based HealthCare Ventures,CatalystHealth & Technology Partners in Boston, and the Perseus-SorosBiopharmaceuticalFund and Morgan Stanley, both in New York. Michael Titus, Novazyme’snew senior director of regulatory affairs, had been vice presidentof operations at Cytogen Corporation on College Road.John Crowley, the CEO, has had two of his three children diagnosedwith Pompe’s disease, a rare form of muscular dystrophy that is thelead target of this company. The son of a police officer in Englewood,Crowley graduated from Georgetown University in 1989, earned a lawdegree from Notre Dame, and practiced healthcare law in Indianapolis.He earned his MBA at Harvard and did marketing and business strategyat Bristol-Myers Squibb before helping to found this company.Novazyme aims to speed up the clinical development of therapeuticprograms developed by William M. Canfield at the University ofOklahomaHealth Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. It has announced “highlypromising results” from pre-clinical studies in laboratory animalsengineered to have Pompe’s disease, which degrades muscles and canbe fatal. About 5,000 people nationwide have this rare, lysosomalstorage disease that is usually fatal in early childhood.Novazyme Pharmaceuticals Inc., 353 Nassau Street,Princeton 08540. John Crowley, CEO. 609-683-4400; fax, 609-683-1771.Home page: www.novazyme.comCenter for Health Care Strategies Inc., 1009 LenoxDrive, Suite 105, Lawrenceville 08648. Stephen A. Somers PhD,president.609-279-0700; fax, 609-279-0956. Home page: www.chcs.org.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesGary Mertz Architect, 65 South Main Street,BuildingC, Box 1016, Pennington 08534. 609-737-7976; fax, 609-430-0631.Homepage: www.mertzarchitects.comGary Mertz moved his four person firm back to 1,000square feet in Pennington Office Park, 65 Main Street, after a shortperiod in a stand-alone building in Lawrence. “This is where ourclient base is, and this space is more conducive to professionalenvironment,”he says.The firm focuses on residential work but also does such commercialwork as additions to Lakeview Child Centers, the NovaSoft buildingon Quakerbridge Road, an adult day care center in Orange, a 40,000square foot building for Joe Pintinalli diagonally across fromNovaSoft,and various residential projects.Mertz, age 44, grew up in Bergen County, where his mother is agerontologistand his father worked for National Industries for the Blind. As aresult of vocational testing he worked as a carpenter for four years,then went to North Carolina State, and studied architecture at Drexel.He started this company in 1996. His wife, Sarah, is associateexecutivedirector for the American Red Cross on Alexander Road.Borden-Perlman Insurance, 2850 Brunswick Pike,Box 6710, Lawrenceville 08648-6710. Douglas C. Borden, president.609-896-3434; fax, 609-895-1468. Home page:www.bordenperlman.comBorden Perlman Insurance, a property and casualty agency, moved from3 Princess Road to Brunswick Pike. The company offers insurance,bonds,risk management, and it is the result of a 1995 merger between WSBorden Co., which originally specialized in industrial andmanufacturinginsurances and operated at 224 West State Street, and PerlmanInsurance,which sold mostly commercial and retail insurance from 133 FranklinCorner Road.Top Of PageStock NewsOpinion Research Corporation (ORCI), 23 OrchardRoad, Suite 1, Box 183, Princeton 08542-0183. John Short, CEO andpresident. 908-281-5100; fax, 908-281-5103. Home page:www.opinionresearch.comOn Wednesday, July 18, the market research firm’s share were to begintrading on Nasdaq as ORCI. Shares had been trading on the AmericanStock Exchange (AMEX) under the symbol “OPI.” “This ispart of our plan to increase the visibility of Opinion Research withinthe investment community and to improve our stock’s liquidity,”says John F. Short, chairman and CEO.Founded in 1938, Opinion Research bills itself as “ameasurement-basedglobal marketing services firm” with market intelligence,consulting,training and teleservices.Top Of PageLucent DownsizesLucent Technologies announced it will close its190-acre,225,000 square foot Hopewell campus where its forces had beendwindling:only 200 employees and 100 consultants remained. Lucent employeesare mourning not only the loss of their jobs but also the downslideof what could have remained one of the nation’s most innovative firms.For four decades this Carter Road property had been the focal pointfor the development of the newest in telecommunications technology— first with Western Electric, followed by Bell Labs and AT&Twith Lucent taking over in 1996. But Lucent began to miss earningstargets in late 1999. Meanwhile all telecom businesses lost ground.Last week’s announcement of the site’s closing coincided with the”last day” for most of the 300 Carter Road workers. Of themore than 8,500 Lucent workers who took buy-out plans, 2,500 are fromNew Jersey. Some non-technical jobs may be transferred to Murray Hill,Warren, Holmdel, Whippany, or Liberty Corner.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
