You wouldn’t expect to find a bank branch on the 18th floor of a Downtown skyscraper.
But The Claxton Bank, a Georgia-based bank acquired by a group of Jacksonville investors in 2023, decided the office in the 37-story 1 Independent Square tower is an ideal site to serve the local community.
“Having space in Downtown in the city center was important us to signify that commitment to Jacksonville,” said President and CEO Scott Verlander.
Claxton Bank has three offices in Georgia but after the investment group acquired a controlling stake in its parent company in November 2023, it established the office in Jacksonville in October 2024.
The site was formerly a law office and it continues to look like any Downtown legal office but it does offer the full services of a bank branch.
“This office serves as both our executive offices in Jacksonville but it’s also a legal deposit taking branch,” Verlander said.
The bank is a community bank that has served Claxton since 1941, and the new owners continue to use that name at its three Georgia offices.
The Claxton Bank is marketing itself as TCB in Jacksonville.
“We’re still a state-chartered bank in Georgia,” said Verlander.
“We had looked at certain strategies around branding,” he said.
“TCB resonated and that allows us to have the best of both worlds.”
The investment group includes former EverBank Chief Executive Rob Clements, who serves as chairman of the board of Claxton Bank.
Clements also is chairman and CEO of financial technology firm Covius Holdings.
“Myself and a small group of local investors, a couple of years ago, we determined there was a market opportunity for a high-touch, high-quality service community bank with a long-term commitment to the Jacksonville community,” Clements said.
The group considered applying for a new bank charter while it also looked at acquisition opportunities.
They determined Claxton Bank was a well-run, established institution with a strong management team.
“We recognized it would be a perfect fit for what we were trying to accomplish,” Clements said.
That management team continues to run the bank’s Georgia operations, where it has two branches in Claxton, west of Savannah, and another in the Savannah suburb of Richmond Hill.
The bank had about $145 million in deposits at the two Claxton offices, representing a 57% market share in Evans County as of June 30, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. The Richmond Hill office had about $12 million in deposits.
“We have significant market share in that community as the only bank headquartered in Claxton and Evans County,” said Verlander.
“It really has been business as usual and that’s a good thing.”
But the new owners brought in a new management team to run the Jacksonville office and oversee the entire operation as the bank looked to grow.
“The first order of business was to identify the best person to lead the bank, and that was Scott,” said Clements.
Verlander was well known to Clements as he was also a former executive at Jacksonville-based EverBank, serving as senior vice president of retail and affiliate banking.
The bank has 10 people working in the TCB office in Jacksonville. Although it is a full-service bank, it doesn’t expect a lot of customers to visit the office in an age where many customers do all of their banking online.
“The industry’s kind of going that way,” said Verlander
“Our mantra is really about bringing the bank to our customers and having that high-touch relationship focus where our technology tools allow customers to really bank with us wherever and whenever,” he said.
“We’re here if they need us.”
Verlander said the bank is focusing in Jacksonville on a target market of small and midsize businesses, including professional firms.
“It’s not as though we’re going after and trying to compete with the very large banks and other institutions in the market,” he said.
Clements said the bank has about $200 million in assets now and has a plan to reach $400 million to $500 million in the next three years.
“We have the capital to support that growth,” he said.
Claxton Bank’s full target market is basically the Interstate 95 corridor between Savannah and Jacksonville, and the bank will consider adding offices elsewhere in that market area.
“I would say Savannah is next on our list and ultimately filling in between Savannah and Jacksonville,” Verlander said.
The bank will also consider additional offices in Jacksonville away from Downtown.
“It’s logical we could have an additional location at some point in the future,” Verlander said.
“We don’t feel like we need to have a location on every street corner to effectively serve our current and future customers.”
Verlander expects TCB to serve as a community bank.
“I think it’s important for us to try to build something that not only can grow and be successful for all our stakeholders but can also be an important part of the community,” he said.
“It extends beyond just the financial impact of growing the business here but also the extensions into the community that it can provide.”