Powhatan’s New Horizon Bank shifting ops center to Henrico

New Horizon Bank is in expansion mode as it looks to grow beyond its home base of Powhatan. (BizSense file photo)

As it looks to continue to grow its reach beyond its hometown of Powhatan, New Horizon Bank is shifting some of its operations to Henrico for the first time.

The $213 million bank is in the process of relocating its operations center, including its executive offices, from 2442 New Dorsett Circle in Powhatan to 7231 Forest Ave. in the West End.

While the bank will retain its one and only stand alone branch in Powhatan and will still technically be headquartered there, CEO Will Groves said the move to Henrico is aimed at giving the small bank a more central location as it looks to increase its presence in the region.

“As we’re growing and recruiting it just made a lot of sense to have a more centric operations center,” said Groves, who took the helm at New Horizon at the beginning of 2024. “That’s going to be what I call a hub for the company.”

New Horizon is leasing nearly 7,000 square feet on the Forest Avenue building’s first floor, giving it room for 35-40 employees. The bank has around 50 total, up from around 30 a year ago.

The new space will add to a new loan office it opened earlier this year at 2800 Patterson Ave., the bank’s first-ever location in the city of Richmond.

Will Groves

It also recently expanded into Norfolk, where it hired a seasoned banker to open its first office in the Hampton Roads region and its first outside of the Richmond area.

Groves said the expansion is already paying off. It has gathered more than $30 million in deposits in Hampton Roads and built a loan portfolio there of more than $10 million in less than a year.

The move to Henrico also allowed the bank to sell its previous Powhatan operations center. The nearly 9,000-square-foot building was purchased last month by an entity tied to Powhatan-based Fortified Security Solutions and its owner Tim Kinney. The sales price was $1.1 million.

Kinney did not return a call for comment by press time.

Real estate broker Ken Campbell with One South Commercial represented New Horizon in the sale. Campbell and his One South colleague Chris Corrada also represented New Horizon in the lease on Forest Avenue.

Another step in the bank’s growth is the recent introduction of wealth management services, which it is offering through a partnership with locally based investment advisory firm Equity Concepts.

Groves said the system is set up on a referral basis in which New Horizon shares the revenue collected by Equity Concepts from New Horizon customers.

Will Saunders, chief relationship officer at Equity Concepts, said it’s the first time the firm has worked with a local bank in such a way.

Saunders said it’s made possible by Equity Concepts’ affiliation with broker-dealer Cambridge Investment Research, which has an in-house platform to help banks offer wealth management service and create a way to share revenue with outside advisors.

Saunders said the setup helps keep costs low for a small bank like New Horizon.

“If you look at a bank like New Horizon, they want to provide all the services that the bigger banks do, the private client model. But there are a lot of startup costs. How do you do that and compete without running in the red quickly?” Saunders said.

Equity Concepts is headquartered in Henrico and has $400 million in client assets under management.

Groves said New Horizon’s ongoing growth plans are fueled in part by a $10 million capital raise earlier this year. He said the capital raise was funded entirely by New Horizon’s majority owner, New York-based investor Uriel Cohen.

Groves said their goal is to get the bank to $300 million in total assets by the end of 2025. Its $213 million in first quarter total assets were up from $140 million a year ago, according to reports filed with the FDIC

The bank held $182 million in deposits as of March 31, up from $123 million in the same period last year. Its loan portfolio stood at $97 million at quarter’s end, up from $72 million a year ago.

New Horizon posted a loss of $523,000 in the first quarter and a loss of $2.1 million for the full year 2024.

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