CIBC debuts new full-service financial center on Royal Palm Way in Palm Beach

A Toronto-based financial institution with more than 13 million clients around the world debuted its new Palm Beach office Tuesday morning.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), a multinational banking and financial services corporation with more than 1,000 banking centers throughout Canada and the United States, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its 7,200-square-foot space at 340 Royal Palm Way.

Daniel E. Sullivan Jr., managing director and head of private and personal banking for CIBC U.S.; Shawn Beber, president and CEO of CIBC Bank U.S.; and Gina Sabean, managing director of CIBC's Palm Beach location, were among the speakers at the ceremony, which drew about 50 guests.

"We're really excited about our new space and our strategy in terms of growing in Florida, and in the Palm Beach area specifically," Beber said in his opening remarks. "This office is sort of an example of where we're trying to bring together all that we offer to our client products and services, complemented by U.S. capital markets and capabilities, to bring all of our services to bear and help you with your financial needs."

CIBC's Palm Beach location is a full-service branch that provides clients with access to a wide range of deposit products, including checking, savings, money market accounts and certificates of deposit. It also will offer mortgages and consumer and business loans.

The branch will be staffed by on-site private banking specialists, underwriters, and client service and relationship managers. The new location complements CIBC’s private wealth office in West Palm Beach, Sullivan said.

“We are pleased to expand our ability to help make our clients’ ambitions a reality by adding banking services to our existing private wealth capabilities in Palm Beach County,” he said. “Our new Palm Beach location provides comprehensive banking services to our clients while allowing us to deliver more of CIBC to them through collaboration with our wealth management and commercial banking colleagues."

CIBC, whose U.S. operation is headquartered in Chicago, operates two other Florida locations — in Miami and Tampa — but neither are full-service branches.

Sullivan said the company had been eyeing Palm Beach as a potential full-service expansion site for about six months, and found the perfect spot inside a Class A boutique building at 340 Royal Palm Way. CIBC occupies the second floor of the three-story building, which is owned by real estate investors Spencer Schlager and Charles L. Rosenberg through Florida entities affiliated with their company, CS Ventures.

Schlager and Rosenberg bought the building at 340 Royal Palm Way along with the one next door at 350 Royal Palm Way for nearly $33 million in April 2022. The building at No. 340 was home for several years to the broadcast studio and office of Rush Limbaugh, a conservative radio firebrand who died in February 2021.

Sullivan said the location was perfect for CIBC, which operates 24 banking centers in the United States.

"What was key was we wanted signage, and we wanted flexibility to park," Sullivan said. "We wanted ease, and we found it here."

Seven team members will work out of the Palm Beach location initially, though that number is expected to grow as the company expands its community development and community lending teams in the market, said Amy Yuhn, chief marketing officer for CIBC U.S.

The location also provides space for colleagues from other parts of South Florida to use when meeting clients in the area.

"We chose the Town of Palm Beach because it is convenient for our clients, including our CIBC clients in Canada who spend their winters on the island," Yuhn said. "It’s also a good location from which we can serve our commercial and commercial real estate banking clients."

Community service is important to CIBC, Beber said, and the company works closely with with numerous community organizations around the country. Locally, the company works with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County and Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches & Treasure Coast, he said, and it plans to make a $50,000 commitment to support training for entrepreneurs in underserved communities.

"Small businesses are the backbone of our communities," he said. "We want to make sure that we are supporting them."

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: CIBC debuts new full-service banking center in Palm Beach