Seattle Office: All About Helping its Customers and Communities

BY JOHN STEARNS

“I think the difference with Heritage is that a fun part about our job is going out and understanding a client’s business,” said Meidinger, senior vice presidentcommercial banking team leader for the bank’s downtown Seattle office, located at 1420 Fifth Avenue on the 36th floor. “It becomes personal because you get to know them, you get to know their family and all their ups and downs.”

Beth Meidinger embodies what one hears often about Heritage Bank, whether from bankers themselves or the customers they serve.

The bank cares about its customers. Relationships are more than transactional.

Heritage’s work to distribute Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans during the height of the pandemic reflected that resolve to help. Customers have told us that getting PPP money through Heritage was quick and efficient when some other banks were slower to establish their systems and meet customer needs. Bank employees were working from home in evenings, talking to customers, doing everything they could to help clients and non-clients before federal assistance dried up, Meidinger said.

“We did it really, really well,” she said. Numbers bear that out. Heritage processed more than 7,100 PPP loans totaling $1.2 billion, she said. The Seattle office processed 328 of the loans totaling about $100 million.

“We had other bank’s customers coming to us once we were able to open it up to non-customers, and what a great way to earn the trust and respect of a non-customer that we were able to retain later,” she said. “I really feel that there is an honest-to-goodness caring; that vein runs deep at Heritage, and we really care about these businesses that we bank. It really makes the job a lot more fun.”

That heart pumps especially big in helping nonprofits and the communities they and the bank serve.

“Nonprofits are an area that we really focus on,” Meidinger said.

The Seattle team has four bankers working on a nonprofit initiative to do even more, Meidinger said. The group attended the Washington State Nonprofit Conference on May 17-19, which included two days of online sessions titled “Learn” and “Advocate” and a third day in person, “Collaborate,” at the Marriott Tacoma Downtown. At the event, nonprofit organizations of all sizes gathered for workshops and a trade show with sponsors and exhibitors featuring professionals like bankers, accountants, marketers and others who can help nonprofits further their cause. Heritage Bank was a partnering sponsor of the event.

The Seattle bankers also participate in nonprofits, whether serving on boards or volunteering at events. In addition to Meidinger, those bankers include Amy Curran, executive vice president-director of commercial banking; Alex Pace, senior vice president-commercial banking officer; Ann Fish, vice president-relationship banking officer; Brock Mullins, senior vice president-commercial banking officer; John Evans, senior vice president-commercial banking officer; Matt Olfson, senior vice president-commercial banking officer; Paul Crawford, vice president-commercial banking officer; Dave Purcell, senior vice president-capital markets group manager; and Jeff Sterken, vice president-capital markets banking officer.

Among the many organization boards they serve on, some include Tacoma’s Youth Marine Foundation, Work Opportunities and Foundation for Edmonds School District. Meidinger has served on Issaquah’s Village Theatre board and Northwest Kidney Center board. Last year the Seattle office, as part of a larger bank program where all branches close for a half day to volunteer, focused its attention on Redmond’s Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center, where bankers mucked stalls, pulled weeds and took on other tasks to help out. Heritage plans another bank-wide volunteer day in September 2023.

The Seattle team’s lending focus includes community projects like two multifamily affordable housing projects expected to close in late June. Between the two, Heritage

will help provide 144 new affordable housing units, one of which is entirely for low-income seniors.

“We are very excited to be a part of these projects,” Meidinger said, highlighting Pace for his work in the affordable housing space. Pace manages the bank’s low-income housing tax credit and bond financing and he does a masterful job coordinating the many parties involved in such deals, Meidinger said.

The Seattle team has a combined 203 years of banking experience, according to Meidinger, who has 30-plus years in the industry. She joined Heritage in 2015 as a commercial banker, a role she held until 2021, then took over the team lead position when Curran was elevated to commercial banking director for the entire bank and to whom Meidinger reports. The office also includes three credit analysts and two loan production assistants.

The Seattle office does significant construction and investor real estate financing, including commercial and industrial credits, she said, estimating 75% of the office’s portfolio is real estate. The balance is owner-occupied commercial and industrial credits for accounts receivable and inventory lending in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors.

Capital markets group

Purcell, who heads the capital markets group for the bank and works out of the Seattle office, started the group in 2015 when he joined Heritage. The group serves the bank’s entire footprint throughout the Northwest. The capital markets group acquires loans that are led and originated by other banks that are too large for the other banks to assume all the risk by themselves, a process typically referred to as participation or syndication loans. Internally, they’re called multibank loans.

The capital markets group also does loan distribution, essentially the opposite of loan acquisition. If Heritage is originating a loan that is too large to hold the whole loan, Purcell will work with other banks on participating in the deal. The Seattle office’s downtown location offers proximity to other banks’ officers to discuss the deals, he said. Multibank loans allow Heritage to participate in loans that otherwise would be too big for it alone and allow it to diversify its credits. In general, the capital markets group will do loans of roughly $5 million to $25 million for total transactions that can range from $15 million to $500 million.

“Particularly for community banks like Heritage, it’s a great way for us to serve the needs of our customers as our customers grow but also protect our risk and protect ourselves from being overly concentrated in one area,” Purcell said.

Purcell also manages the bank’s customer-facing swap program offering ways for customers to manage their interest rate risk.

KING COUNTY BY THE NUMBERS

Major industries: professional and business services, education and health services, retail trade, government, information and leisure and hospitality

Major employers: Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, University of Washington, Providence Swedish

Nearly 1.46 million jobs (as of 2022)

$105,520 annual wage

#1 best county for young professionals in Washington

esd.wa.gov/labormarketinfo/county-profiles/ king#:~:text=Major%20industry%20sectors%20in%20 King,information%2C%20and%20leisure%20and%20 hospitality seatoday.6amcity.com/top-industries-employers-seattle-wa

OUR COMMERCIAL TEAM

Combined banker experience: 203 years

Areas of expertise: commercial real estate, commercial lending, equipment financing, affordable housing, nonprofits

Volunteer hours served in 2022: 190

Charitable giving in 2022: $160,000

Top nonprofits: Sea-Mar Community Health Centers, Low Income Housing Institute, Plymouth Housing, Wonderland Child & Family Services, Youth Marine Foundation, Work Opportunities, Foundation for Edmonds School District

CONTACT OR VISIT

1420 Fifth Ave, Suite 3600 Seattle, WA 98101 206.204.4068

Hazel Lee Branch Relationship Officer

Hazel has worked for Heritage since 2019 and started as a customer service associate. She furthered her career as a financial services associate and commercial banking associate and is now the branch relationship officer at the Seattle commercial banking center.