The spot on the corner of Trumbull and Asylum Streets, home to a string of nightclubs in recent years, may have a new sign out front soon: Sovereign Bank.
After moving its headquarters for Connecticut and Western Massachusetts to West Hartford in 2003, area President Kevin E. Flaherty said he hopes to open a new downtown branch in the former home of the night spot, Bar with No Name, and return the bank’s regional management to the floor above.
Sovereign is in what he termed “deep discussions” for leasing the space, and if it is finalized as he expects, the new branch and office could open in the first quarter of 2008. He was confident that Trust Bar, a new tenant in the building, would be leaving soon.
Long-Sought Return
Flaherty said he disliked moving the bank’s headquarters out of downtown in the first place, but that it was the right move at the time. The bank, controlled by Philadelphia- headquartered Sovereign Bancorp., had excess space at 1010 Farmington Ave. in West Hartford, a building it owns. The move allowed it to reduce the rent it paid at 100 Pearl St., site of its current branch downtown.
“It was a simple business decision. It wasn’t about Hartford versus West Hartford,” Flaherty said.
“We were sorry to leave.”
The corporate office relocation won’t affect the branch also housed in the West Hartford building.
He said he wasn’t sure whether the new branch would mean the closing of the 100 Pearl Street office, but acknowledged that it would likely be duplicative to keep both open.
“It’s hard to say [whether 100 Pearl Street will close]. I think the theory will be to look at the foot traffic and make a decision,” he said.
Stronger Presence
Returning his own office to downtown is part of a larger reworking Flaherty has in store for the $90 billion bank’s presence in Greater Hartford, already the site of most of the bank’s 36 Connecticut branches.
Sovereign will be the only bank to have a branch in Blue Back Square, the 550,000 square-foot mixed use development that it helped finance, where it will join retailers like Barnes & Noble, Crate & Barrel and REI, as well as a Criterion Cinemas movie theater and a Cheesecake Factory restaurant.
The new 2,500 square-foot branch, as well as a network of Sovereign ATMs throughout the development, will be ready when Blue Black opens; Nov. 1 is the planned date.
Flaherty said he negotiated an exclusive right to a branch in the development during financing discussions.
“That was one of the conditions. We didn’t want to have many competitors there,” he said.
Sovereign is also looking into adding a branch in Hartford’s Park Street neighborhood, another indication of Flaherty’s bullishness on the city as well as a likely reflection of the interests of the bank’s largest stockholder, the Spanish financial firm Banco Santander Central Hispano, which paid $3.6 billion in June for a nearly 20 percent stake in Sovereign Bancorp.
“It’s our plan to be in that neighborhood and to be part of that growth up there,” Flaherty said, adding: “We’ve been watching Hartford and it’s a good time to make a long-term bet that it will be an even more attractive market in the coming years.”
Realignment
With branches from Maryland to New Hampshire, Sovereign grew its total assets by $25.9 billion last year and $9.2 billion the year before.
But it isn’t all growth in the works. Though he may have three new branches by early 2008, Flaherty will be closing at least three others, all of the shopping mall variety, as he will shut the doors at Westfarms Mall, The Shoppes at Farmington Valley, in Canton, and at Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester.
Flaherty said there were multiple reasons for the lackluster performance of those branches.
“The whole [shopping mall] thing hasn’t really worked,” he said. He does not plan to close the site of his current office, at 1010 Farmington Ave. in West Hartford.
Much of the restructuring is undoubtedly related to turbulence at the top.
The stock purchase by Santander led to the October departure of Chairman and CEO Jay Sidhu, which in turn buoyed the company’s stock. Last week it traded at between $25 and $26 amid continued speculation that it will be sold to Santander or another buyer. Hartford native Joseph Campanelli was named interim CEO.
