OneUnited to open branch
in Grove Hall
Yawu Miller
In the ten years since Kevin Cohee and Terri Williams acquired a
controlling interest in the Boston Bank of Commerce, they built
the once-struggling community institution into the largest black-owned
bank in the country.
Last week, the couple joined community luminaries in Grove Hall
to announce their latest venture, One United Bank’s first
new branch in Roxbury in more than 20 years.
“As a child of an inner-city community I can tell you, it
doesn’t get any better than this,” Williams announced,
surrounded by city officials and Grove Hall business boosters.
The new branch, which will have four tellers, an ATM and several
community lending officers, will be located on the ground floor
of the Silva Building — a flatiron-shaped brick building at
the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Warren Street. Building owner
Long Bay Management is in the process of renovating the upper floors,
which are slated for office space.
Williams said the bank’s new branch will have a special focus
on community lending.
“We want to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in loans
in the Boston community,” Williams said. Last year the bank
made $170 million in loans nationwide.
With the opening of the new Grove Hall branch, Williams said the
bank will turn to a special focus on making low-cost loans to the
inner-city population that makes up the bulk of the bank’s
clientele. Last year, 40 percent of the bank’s loans were
written in low- to moderate-income communities.
Bank officials are currently meeting with the city’s Department
of Neighborhood Development to collaborate on a new affordable lending
program.
The new branch comes after the bank consolidated its rank as the
largest black-owned bank in the country, with over $500 million
in assets and branches in Boston, Florida and California.
“The Boston community has supported OneUnited Bank over the
years as we have prepared the institution for national expansion,”
said chairman and CEO Kevin Cohee in a press statement. “We
are now the largest African American-owned bank in the country offering
the most comprehensive banking services — including home mortgages,
online banking, debit cards and our innovative competitive banking
services.”
The new branch is opening in a community that for years had no full-service
bank. The Grove Hall Mecca Mall, which opened in 2001, was the first
major development to open in the area in years, bringing a supermarket
and other businesses to the area.
Mayor Thomas Menino has made the redevelopment of Blue Hill Avenue
a cornerstone of his administration, directing city agencies to
pump more than $70 million into various rehabilitation projects
along the avenue. At last week’s One United opening, Menino
touted the bank branch as another milestone in the redevelopment
of the avenue.
“It’s another great day on Blue Hill Avenue,”
he said. “Take a walk down Blue Hill Avenue. You’ll
see new life. It’s because we have a strong community making
sure we all share in the wealth.”
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