BELLE FOURCHE—A small, family-oriented bank is getting ready to call Belle Fourche home. Legends West Bank, started in Lewellen, Nebraska, with a branch in Spearfish, SD is expanding to the Center of the Nation.
The new branch will bring with it a familiar face to run the location. Scott Reder, Senior Vice President Commercial AG Loan Officer at the Spearfish Legends West Bank, will be making the move over to manage this branch. “Being a Belle Fourche native and knowing quite a few people in the area, it was just a natural fit for me to come up and manage this branch,” he explained.
The old Meals on Wheels location on the corner of highway 85 and National Street is in the process of receiving a complete overhaul to transition to the new bank branch. “We’ve already gutted it, there is nothing left inside at all. It’s going to have a complete facelift,” said Reder. “The building itself will look entirely different, it’ll spruce up that corner and look really nice when we are done.”
The hunt for the right location has been ongoing for awhile. “A great location was one of the things that I wanted, I knew there was a lot of traffic on that highway 85 corridor and we were trying to find something on the South side of Belle on that road,” said Reder. “We had looked at a couple other spots that just didn’t really fit, then this one came up and the timing was right so we decided that would be a good fit for us.”
Plans are to start small and then grow as community needs expand. Reder explained, “At first it’s going to be what we call an LPO which is a loan production office, we’ll do loans out of there until the bank gets fully accredited—which will probably take a month and then it’ll be a full fledged bank. But it takes time for the paperwork to go through.”
Reder is excited for the new opportunity that the bank and his experience will bring to the area. “I am not only excited for me, but I’m excited for the area residents and ranchers because I think with my expertise in all aspects of farming and ranching and in the ag part of banking, (I can help) build very good rapport with ranchers that have been doing it for a long time and others that are just starting out,” he said.
The plan is to have the bank up and running by late fall if all goes well, but hopefully before the end of the year. The new branch will bring new jobs to town. “So just right at the beginning we’ll probably have two to three and as the bank grows and the need arises, then we’ll add more,” explained Reder. “We’ll have a small footprint at first and then we’ll grow into it.”
The Legends West Bank is looking forward to calling Belle Fourche home. “We are happy to be in Belle Fourche and we look forward to serving the public and giving them a good product.” Reder said. “We are a family bank, the Legends West started from a family in Nebraska and we have grown into South Dakota and we want to pass that on and give good service to the public!”
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