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.”