In mid-July, Potomac Bank of Virginia is slated to open an office in Fairfax City. The office will serve as the bank’s headquarters, making Potomac Bank the only bank headquartered in the city. It will be located at 9910 Main St., in the Fairfax Square commercial development.
"We look forward to their active participation in the city," said Fairfax mayor Rob Lederer.
Bank leaders chose Fairfax because many of its shareholders and board members live or work in the city. Four out of 11 board members, 25 percent of the bank’s shareholders, and board chairman Marshall Groom, former president of the George Mason Bank in Fairfax, live in Fairfax City.
"We have directors who are very well-versed and know the city fairly well," said Larry Warren, president and chief executive officer of Potomac Bank of Virginia.
Twenty-seven bank employees are slated to work at the Fairfax headquarters, which will offer a full-service branch as well as house executive offices, finance, business lending, an expanded home mortgages services department, loan administration and operations. Nancy Krause, who has served in the banking industry for over 20 years, will be vice president and manager of the Fairfax City office.
Although Potomac Bank will move from its current headquarters in Vienna, it will keep a branch there. Because the bank is near the end of its short-term lease, the Vienna branch will move to a new location, from 133 Maple Ave. E. to 414 Maple Ave. E. The bank’s third branch, at Prosperity Medical Center on Arlington Boulevard and Prosperity Avenue, will remain at its current location.
"We want to be able to better position ourselves to serve our customers and expand our customer base," Groom said.
Once the bank moves into Fairfax, Warren expects the company to become involved in community affairs, such as participation in local civic associations like the Rotary Club, the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce and Historic Fairfax Inc.
"We think that a local branch is a creature of that community, so we have an obligation. … We expect that we’ll become a fixture," Warren said.
The Potomac Bank of Virginia celebrates its fifth anniversary this August. At the close of 2002, the bank recorded its total assets at $116 million.