Commercial Banking Center Profile: Portland

Bringing Diversity & Equity Passion to a Broad Range of Portland-Area Clients & Industries

Article by John Stearns

Mission matters to Emily Leach and her experienced, talented commercial banking team in Portland.

“Our team is very passionate about access to capital, and diversity, equity and inclusion are key values that inform all of our decisions, including how we spend our time,” said Leach, senior vice president-commercial banking team leader at Heritage Bank’s downtown Portland office. “We therefore end up working with clients who might need a special amount of advocacy in order to achieve their goals of buying a building or completing a complex transaction.”

The bankers are willing to take the time, sometimes years, to help historically disadvantaged clients access capital to grow their enterprises.

It was Heritage’s mission and deep sense of community that convinced Leach and four others to leave their previous bank on the same day in May 2017 to open Heritage’s new commercial office in Portland that summer. That was a big day “to make the leap together” to join Heritage, she said.

The draw of Heritage?

“What seemed to be a very authentic desire to support bankers that are truly invested in their communities,” Leach answered. “We could see where the culture would be open to the market strategies that we had used to build our book of business and the passion areas that we had would be supported.”

That includes leveling the playing field to access lending.

“We were thoroughly impressed with the quality of our management team along with the level of engagement and support,” she said. “It might have felt a little bit lonely, but we were incredibly supported by a number of different managers, and we have never looked back on our decision. It’s been rewarding to be part of opening a new market for a great bank.”

That core group of five has since grown and is passionate about supporting nonprofits and affordable housing. The team also works a lot with professional services companies— including law, architecture and property management firms— and manufacturers that are locally based and often family owned. The team has served some of its manufacturing clients for more than 10 years, with the clients following their bankers to Heritage.

Leach also takes pride in helping professional services firms, which often handle large inflow and outflow transactions for projects they’re managing, and other business and nonprofit clients navigate the bank’s treasury management tools.

“I think that’s another key theme that differentiates our team … is that we have a large number of relationship banking officers as well as commercial banking officers,” she said of various staff dedicated to helping clients think through cash flow and look for ways to build efficiency and security.

The Portland team is comprised of about half relationship banking officers focused on deposits and cash management tools while the other half are lenders focused on loans.

A few Portland-area project highlights

Leach’s team is working with a nonprofit, College Housing Northwest, whose mission is developing stable, affordable housing for college students. Heritage is funding one of their first projects at a community college, rather than a traditional university.

“Community colleges are a super important part of our community’s education ecosystem, so that’s a super exciting project for us,” Leach said. “Though affordable housing is something our team does every single year, this is our first student housing project.”

Like affordable housing, addiction treatment projects also are important to Heritage’s Portland bankers, who have helped organize financing for two nonprofit treatment facilities in the last several years.

In early August, the Portland team was preparing to close on financing for its first for-profit treatment facility. The outof-state client is opening its first Oregon facility, a 16-bed outpatient building for clients early in their detoxification journey. The company plans on securing three more facilities in the state.

“It’s a super meaningful project for us to be part of because there’s so much need in our community for addiction help,” Leach said.

Another exciting project is a refinancing deal for a customer in an industry hard hit by the pandemic: a health club. The club was referred to Heritage’s Portland team by an existing health club client who the new client trusted.

“Because of that endorsement, we had a deeper trust level with them more quickly and could better understand how their business operated in normal times so we could help them achieve their goals more effectively,” Leach said.

The bankers are willing to take the time, sometimes years, to help historically disadvantaged clients access capital to grow their enterprises.

Sometimes, help is a ‘warm handoff’

While Heritage’s commercial lenders do all they can to walk historically disadvantaged clients across the lending finish line and understand the metrics for traditional bank financing, not every borrower will qualify. That doesn’t mean Heritage stops helping, though. The bank will facilitate a “warm handoff” to other funders it trusts, Leach said. “Thankfully in Portland, there’s a very vibrant community of alternative lenders that are very supportive of minority borrowers, including Craft3, MESO (Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon) and Mercy Corps Northwest, and so those organizations we have close friendships with and share a passion for serving this community together,” Leach said.

Passion comes up often in conversation with Leach, who has 22 years in the Portland-area banking industry. Her focus areas include nonprofits, law and other professional firms and businesses focused on sustainability.

Other Portland bankers and their areas of expertise include:

Kathy Swift, who wears two hats at Heritage as nonprofit development officer and senior vice president-commercial banking officer. She consults across the bank, offering nonprofit lending expertise in areas like designing independent school facility financing or capital campaign lines of credit. She offers expertise to the bank and clients, including real estate loans, lines of credit, tax-advantaged bonds and affordable housing credits.

Kristen Connor, a community development officer and senior vice president-relationship banking officer, who helps lead the bank’s social responsibility, green team and volunteerism efforts through the Heritage Helps program.

Patrick McCarthy specializes in financing solutions, including equipment, working capital lines of credit and real estate financing to the food and beverage industry. Thomas Shirlaw is an experienced commercial lender serving health care, professional firms and manufacturing clients.

Other Portland bankers include Elise Bouneff, Tamara Brown, Teresa Carpenter, Andrew Harper, Sherry Stewart and Paul van der Salm.

Leach said Heritage’s local bankers have deep community involvement, and leadership is a strong thread running through the commercial lenders and relationship officers. Some of their community involvement includes: Oregon Law Foundation, Jessie F. Richardson Foundation, Corporate Sustainability Collaborative, Blanchet House, Business for a Better Portland, Taste for Oregon, Earth Day Oregon, Neighborhood House, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Commercial Real Estate Women, Future Leaders Committee, Black United Fund of Oregon, UNCF Portland, Portland State University’s Center for Real Estate, Financial Beginnings Oregon, Second Step Housing, Caring Closet, Cappella Romana, Camp Fire Columbia, Oregon Hospice & Palliative Care Association and Raphael House.

“The sense of connection to the community is very important to all of our bankers,” Leach said. “And I think it’s great to work with a bank that has that as part of the fabric of who we are and not something that goes against the grain.”

BUSINESS IN PORTLAND BY THE NUMBERS

Major industries: healthcare, apparel, professional services, technology, commercial shipping, food & beverage, manufacturing

Major employers: Intel Corporation, Providence Health System, Oregon Health & Science University, Nike, Legacy Health System, Kaiser Foundation, Fred Meyer

6.2% job growth in 2021

10th fastest recovering economy among the 50 largest U.S. metro regions

#1 best place to live on the west coast in 2021-20222 Fortune 500 companies based in Portland#3 best U.S. metropolitan areas for business and careers

ABOUT OUR COMMERCIAL TEAM

Combined banker experience: 278 years

Volunteer hours served in 2021: 825

Charitable giving in 2021: $70,000

ABOUT OUR DOWNTOWN PORTLAND BRANCH

Allyson Bailey, Branch Relationship Officer

Allyson has lived in the Pacific Northwest for her entire life, growing up in the Vancouver, Washington, area. She started her banking career as a float teller and has held various positions at a branch and operations center. She works closely with the commercial banking team in Portland and focuses on property management, nonprofits and commercial businesses. Her goal is to help her customers achieve their daily financial goals now and in the future.

1000 SW Broadway, Suite 2170 Portland, OR 97205 503.306.5400

ABOUT OUR LLOYD BRANCH

Debbie Russell, Branch Relationship Officer

Debbie has been in banking for more than 40 years. She’s worked as a teller, department manager and operations manager. As branch relationship officer, she spends time building long-term relationships by assisting families and business owners reach their financial goals. She also supports a number of nonprofit organizations in her community, such as Schoolhouse Supplies, Dress For Success, Meals on Wheels, S.M.A.R.T., Oregon Food Bank, Good Neighbor Center and Junior Achievement. She served on the board the Pearl District Neighborhood Association and was the chairman of the Livability Committee in the Pearl District.

1201 NE Lloyd Blvd., Suite 290 Portland, OR 97232 503.693.2280