October 30, 2017 at 3:44 p.m.
Associated Bank breaks ground on new location
New branch to open this spring
Associated Bank breaks ground on new location
Dennis DeLoye, president of Associated Bank's northern Wisconsin operations, shared some background on the bank's history.
"Our company is growing; we have been in the banking business for over 150 years. At this point, we are the largest Wisconsin-based bank," DeLoye said. "That is something we're very proud of."
He also noted that the company is in the process of acquiring Bank Mutual, a Milwaukee-based bank, which will represent Associated's first bank acquisition in over 10 years.
"We're glad to be growing and proud to be investing in our communities," DeLoye said. "We're not only growing as a company, we're growing locally, and so we're investing in our communities, we're investing in our talent. We've asked our customers, over time, how do you want us to deliver your bank, and they said we like dealing local, and we've listened to our customers."
DeLoye stressed Associated officials' deep connnections to the community.
He noted that he grew up in Eagle River the child of parents who were originally from Rhinelander.
He also pointed to the hiring of Brad Kowieski as Northwoods community vice president for commercial banking, along with Brian Fritz who will be the Northwoods community private banker and northern Wisconsin market manager Cindy Bodoh, who will all be based out of the Rhinelander branch, as evidence of the bank's commitment to the local community.
Kowieski is a Rhinelander native while Fritz is originally from Three Lakes and Bodoh hails from Park Falls.
"Our leadership team for northern Wisconsin is all natives of this area," he said. "We have Jo Waltenberg, who manages our Rhinelander office and has been here for many years and been with our company for many years."
DeLoye said the company is excited about what it is building in Rhinelander and recalled a Saturday 36 years ago when he came to Rhinelander to take the ACT test.
"After the ACT test, we had pizza here at the Pizza Hut," DeLoye said. "It's exciting to be here to repurpose this corner and it is just a fabulous corner in Rhinelander."
Maggie Steffen, executive director of the Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce, thanked Associated Bank for its commitment to the Rhinelander community. She said the chamber's mission is to help attract new businesses to the area by highlighting the community.
"With this new branch, Associated Bank is helping lead the way," Steffen said. "Downtown regions and cities thrive on growing business and growing banking partners. And Associated Bank is a strong supporter and we look forward to working with them in helping build a stronger Rhinelander."
Born and raised a Hodag, Kowieski said it is great to see new investment in the Rhinelander community.
"I'm part of the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation, and if we can get more of this happening, it's a great thing for the Northwoods. And to have an anchor such as Associated Bank in the community is fantastic," Kowieski said. "As an Associated Bank employee, I can't say how excited our team and colleagues are to be serving the Rhinelander area from a new location and have a beautiful new building. The new building will provide a foundation for Associated Bank to positively impact the Northwoods for many years to come."
Following the turning of the soil to mark the official groundbreaking, DeLoye said that while the Rhinelander location will be similar in design to the new branches recently built in Minocqua and Eagle River, it will be somewhat larger in size.
"We've been rebranding our branches, for the last several years with the bright new, colorful facilities, so this one will look similar to those," DeLoye said. "It's a little bigger than our normal footprint because we're going to house a president and a commercial banker and private banker along with our other colleagues."
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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