Partner Spotlight: TowneBank

TowneBank started in 1998 with a big dream in a two-car garage in Portsmouth, Virginia. It was there that the original founders met and created the vision that would become TowneBank: a community-oriented bank focused on key principles that include a commitment to recruiting the very best employees, creating a family atmosphere, engaging local board members, and delivering the ultimate in customer service while providing quality, upscale banking facilities that house the most efficient technology available.

On April 8, 1999, TowneBank opened three offices with start-up capital from more than 4,000 shareholders. Achieving profitability in just 11 months, TowneBank continued to grow - and still does, today -operating more than 40 banking offices throughout Hampton Roads and Central Virginia, as well as Northeastern and Central North Carolina.

As TowneBank grew, there were celebrations, commemorations, and benchmark moments that recognized our hardworking and deserving family of members, shareholders, and employees. TowneBank has never lost sight of our mission: to be a community asset committed to serving others and enriching lives. And it was with this mission in mind that TowneBank made the decision to establish the Public Finance and Community Investment (PFCI) division in 2013.

Led by Anne Conner, President of PFCI, the division is tasked with ensuring that all of Towne’s friends and neighbors have access to high quality, safe affordable housing with a full suite of amenities which serves to create a healthy lifestyle regardless of income level. Towne recognizes that stable, affordable housing is important for children’s futures and is supportive of emotional, physical, and behavioral health. We also recognize the economic benefits. Studies have shown that affordable housing uplifts residents, reduces overcrowding, increases adjacent property values, attracts businesses and jobs, and lowers crime rates. Perhaps most importantly, Towne recognizes that affordable housing developments encourage diversity by creating communities where people of different cultural, socio-economic, and educational backgrounds can gain a better understanding of one another through relationships as neighbors and friends.

Since its inception in 2013, Towne has committed over $227 million in affordable housing investments, and we aren’t done yet! We currently have another $132 million in the pipeline for 2022. The investments made to date have created over 3,000 homes for individuals and families – homes where the residents can focus on a productive and healthy future without worrying about the ability to make a monthly rent payment. Towne is proud to support the economic and social well-being of all the communities we serve through these important and life changing investments. After all, serving others and enriching lives is what TowneBank is all about!