Bell Bank celebrates downtown opening

Jun. 8—Bell Bank celebrated the opening of its downtown office, 234 Frederica St., on Wednesday with local elected and community leaders.

The event was part of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce's ribbon cutting ceremony that was held on the building's fifth floor.

Candance Castlen Brake, Chamber president and CEO, noted that Owensboro National Bank once stood at the same site before it was torn down to construct the current building.

"This property was home to the signature bank in Owensboro — Owensboro National Bank," Brake told the crowd. "So this has been a very big corner to our community's business center really for over a 100 years."

Bell Bank staff moved in two weeks ago as the Fargo, North Dakota-based bank began expanding the company's footprint.

Bob Smiley, Bell Bank's senior vice president of mortgage servicing, said 43 people, mostly leadership, have been hired with at least another 100 employees to be added over the coming months.

"...We needed to start with leaders to build the teams and then build as we grow," Smiley said.

Smiley was with U.S. Bank for 18 years in Owensboro but returned home to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2017, not knowing what he was going to do next.

Smiley said it was a former U.S. Bank colleague who went to work for Bell Bank who presented him with the opportunity to join the company.

And when Bell Bank was looking to expand its mortgage servicing platform, Smiley said he knew Owensboro would have a workforce to meet the company's needs.

"We knew we had to do it somewhere, and we had to find people with some experience; it's hard to find in the Fargo market and the Twin Cities," Smiley said. "So they agreed to allow me to open up a center here in Owensboro."

Bell Bank is taking over space that housed Alorica — a call service center. Its employees were sent home during COVID-19 to work remotely. Alorica decided to keep its employees working from home, opening the door for Bell Bank.

Bell Bank will operate its mortgage servicing center out of floors three, four and five. The third floor is still under construction, but the two above floors are filled with offices and cubicles.

Smiley said the three floors are being outfitted for 178 employees.

"We started from zero," Smiley said. "We demoed everything that was on three, four and five; we started fresh."

Bell Bank employees are working four days in the office and one day at home.

Smiley said the various teams decide what day they prefer to work at home.

"Our employees seem to enjoy it," Smiley said. "Having one day a week seems to work well with people, but still being together as a team in the office four days a week."

Bell Bank, which has more than $10 billion in assets, currently employs 2,300 people companywide.

It describes itself as the largest family-and employee-owned bank in the upper Midwest and one of the largest privately-owned banks in the nation.