Broward County will never be mistaken for “Wall Street South,” the moniker frequently employed by neighboring Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties to woo big investment firms and hedge fund superstars to locate there.
But the Greater Fort Lauderdale area is a fertile land of entrepreneurship, budding businesses and a growing roster of mid-sized companies — many of which are seeking fresh capital to help them expand.
All of that is not lost on Miami-based Banesco USA, a $4.4 billion commercial bank that recently set up a loan-and-deposit production office in suburban Plantation. The bank hopes to start a retail branch there in 2026.
Founded in 2006 as an independent state-chartered bank. Banesco operates multiple branches in Miami-Dade County and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2023, it set up a similar loan-and-deposit office in Palm Beach County.
Management’s intent to grow its Broward presence is a positive sign for would-be Hispanic business borrowers. The bank is the only institution in the state and Puerto Rico to receive funds from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Emergency Capital Investment Program, which allows financial institutions to accelerate lending to minority communities. Banesco USA received $250 million for that purpose.
Although the bank has done business in Broward previously, its decision to enhance its focus in the area underscores the continuing buildup of financial institutions around the county. The financial services sector is a “target industry” of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the county’s economic development agency. And after the county added more than 34,000 residents to push its population to 2,037,472 between 2023 and 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, money men see even more opportunities.
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Broward County commercial lenders are finding a robust market for business loans despite lofty interest rates.
“Broward County has a thriving commercial banking and middle market sector,” Calixto Garcia-Velez, the CEO and president, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel recently. “That’s very attractive to us.”
“What we’re looking for is businesses that have been established for a minimum of three years,” he said.
He added the bank wants to do deals in the neighborhood of $15 million to $30 million with companies that generate revenues in excess of $100 million.
Recent clients have included a quick service restaurant doing business in multiple states, as well as the operator of a luxury auto leasing business.
Growth amid uncertainties
Over the last three years, new community banks including Locality Bank and Evermore Bank set up shop in Fort Lauderdale to target the growing sector. Prior to that, larger banks including City National Bank out of Miami established a string of branches north of the county line in Broward.
Centennial Bank, an Arkansas-based institution that took over Fort Lauderdale-based Stonegate Bank nearly a decade ago, maintains 11 branches countywide, more than in Palm Beach or in Miami-Dade counties, according to J.C. de Ona, division president for Southeast Florida at Centennial.
“Broward has always been a good market — it hasn’t been Miami and it hasn’t been Palm Beach,” he said. “It’s slowly grown over the years. It’s kind of creating its own identity.”
“Some people like it because it is a little more laid back,” he said.
The county has a wide array of incumbent large and mid-sized banks ranging from Bank of America, TD Bank and Truist, to BankUnited, Optimum, PNC, Synovus and Wells Fargo, among others.
“There’s a potential for growth as much or more so as in Miami,” said Rebel Cole, professor of finance at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business.
“They have an advantage in the Hispanic community,” he said of Banesco USA.
Watching and waiting
Local bankers acknowledge they are monitoring the policy pyrotechnics enveloping Washington — from tariffs to federal employee purges to immigration.
While federal layoffs and the prospect of agencies being eliminated with the stroke of a presidential pen have generated concern in the business community, Garcia-Velez said they are not grounds for deploying any special “action plans.”
“We are watching it very closely, as is everyone,” he said. “There is a difference between headlines and what actually happens.”
He said none of the bank’s clients are reliant on government funds and contracts.
“Where I’m paying a lot more attention is the impact on the regulatory environment,” Garcia-Velez said, pointing to actions that might emerge from the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Keith Costello, co-founder, chairman, CEO and president of Locality Bank, said he is hoping his bank will grow by 25% to 30% this year.
“My biggest concern is about uncertainty,” Costello said. “You look around and the economy is very good.”
“We are being cautious because of the uncertainty right now, and we have tightened credit a bit because of that,” he added.
“We’re paying attention,” said Seth Denison, managing director of investor relations and vice president of corporate relations at Optimum, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. “We’re not seeing any challenges in our loan portfolio.”
He said Optimum three weeks ago became a Small Business Administration “preferred lender,” a status that allows the bank to make lending decisions without seeking SBA approval.
“We are seeing the same volume in a month for loan requests as we were seeing for a whole year,” he said.