First Western Readies For More Market Share

First Western Bank isn’t settling for a 1.88 percent share of the banking market in Benton County.

It’s the smallest bank in Benton County but the largest in Logan County, the only other county it serves. It has 37 percent of the market share in Logan County.

Nathan Gairhan, regional president, said that for the first time First Western has more than $200 million in assets. A record $205.3 million was listed on the bank’s financial reports submitted to the FDIC for Dec. 31, 2002.

First Western will open its first Washington County location this summer. Plans are to open a full-service branch on Joyce Boulevard in Fayetteville in June.

First Western will add a third bank in Rogers in early 2004. Construction will start this fall on a 3,000-SF bank at 2600 Pinnacle Hills Parkway. Construction is expected to cost more than $1 million.

Gairhan believes that will be a great location for First Western. There’s a lot of activity in that part of Rogers, but the bank is also committed to its main branch downtown, he said.

The bank is also planning a $2 million expansion of its main bank building in Benton County at 401 W. Walnut St. in Rogers. The 5,700-SF main bank will be expanded to about 16,000 SF.

First Western also has a bank in Bentonville and another in Bella Vista. There are 32 employees working for First Western in Benton County. Gairhan said they’ll likely add 10 to 20 new employees in coming months and another six will be hired to operate the Fayetteville bank.

“We’ve been in Logan County a little over 90 years, and we’ve been in Benton County since 1991,” said First Western Bank Chairman and CEO John T. Hampton. “We have a good foothold in Benton County and a good foothold in Logan County, and now it’s time for us to move into Washington County and into Sebastian County.”

First Western has purchased property at 70th Street and Phoenix Avenue in Fort Smith and will start construction of a bank there sometime in 2004. Fort Smith is just 35 miles from Booneville, and the bank has 300 to 400 customers in the area already, Hampton said.

It makes sense to expand when the economy is lagging, Hampton said. “Business is cyclical,” and if expansions are delayed until the economy is thriving, the expansion is lagging behind the need, he said.

“We really cater to small business and families, with everything from home loans to business loans,” Gairhan said. “There’s a lot of great competition in the marketplace, but our people make the difference. We have a good and experienced staff.”

Greg Heller, vice president and commercial loan officer, said he was convinced he wanted to work for First Western after hearing banking customers at another local bank remark about the level of service provided at First Western.

“It’s really loyalty to our customers. All the officers here go an extra mile to try to satisfy their customers,” Heller said. “You don’t see that in a lot of larger banks.”

First Western originally operated as a sister bank of Citizens Bank of Booneville named First Western Bank & Trust. The two banks were under a separate charter but owned by the same holding company until a few years ago when they merged under the Citizens Bank charter and both officially changed their names to First Western Bank.

Gairhan explained that Citizens Bank had a number of clients in Northwest Arkansas before the decision was made to open a local bank.

“The economy was so good and we already had a lot of relationships in Northwest Arkansas,” he said.

And that decision has been a good one for the bank, Gairhan said.