This story was updated on Aug. 2 to note that Mountain Valley Bank is one of the oldest local banks, which started in 1905. The oldest locally owned bank in metropolitan Chattanooga is Builtwell Bank, which began as Marion Trust and Banking County Bank Trust in Jasper in 1904.
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One of the oldest locally owned banks in metropolitan Chattanooga has opened a new branch in Ooltewah as it expands its physical presence into Hamilton County for the first time and looks for additional growth in East Tennessee
Mountain Valley Bank, which began in 1905 as the Sequatchie County Bank in Dunlap, bought the former Northwest Georgia Bank next to the Collegedale Walmart superstore in February for $1.4 million and opened the remodeled office last month.
According to the FDIC, Mountain Valley is one of 21 banks that now compete for more than $12 billion of bank deposits in Hamilton County. Northwest Georgia Bank, which built the 5,368-square-foot bank office in 2007, closed the bank branch five years ago shortly after it merged with First Bank in 2015.
While other banks are pruning some of their branches as online banking continues to grow, Billingsley said Mountain Valley is looking to add more offices in other East Tennessee markets.
"We like the I-75 corridor, and we think this is a growing area with a lot of potential," Mountain Valley Bank President Andy Billingsley said in an interview at the new Ooltewah office. "We feel like as a hometown bank we can offer something in this area that is not being offered right now."
One of the board members for Mountain Valley Bank, Cain Development Partner Josh Cain, lives and builds homes in the Ooltewah area and should help grow the new bank's presence in the community.
"We're eager to get involved in the community," said Ally Ward, an assistant vice president managing the new Ooltewah branch.
In an interview last month in the new branch, Ward said she left Simply Bank after four years to join Mountain Valley as it expands into Hamilton County. She previously helped open a new branch for Simply Bank on Gunbarrel Road in East Brainerd.
"I'm really excited by the team we have put together here and the potential to serve this area," she said.
Ward said Mountain Valley is focused on the customer and the local community with hometown personal banking services. As a certified Community Development Financial Institution, Mountain Valley Bank is able to offer loans to low- and middle-income persons who might not otherwise qualify for a conventional bank loan, Billingsley said.
Mountain Valley provides a variety of adjustable mortgage loans, which it keeps on its own portfolio.
The bank also offers a program for first-time home buyers which will fund the entire cost of the home purchase through its CDFI participation. Mountain Valley also offers a variety of conventional mortgage options for those that don't qualify for the Community Development Financial Institution loans and the bank services all of its mortgages.
BRANCHING OUT FROM DUNLAP
Sequatchie County Bank was the first bank in Dunlap, started by a group of investors in 1905 in a corner of the Moore Hotel. The bank has remained locally owned and was renamed Mountain Valley Bank in 2002 when the bank expanded to Monteagle. In March 2022, Mountain Valley added a branch in Jasper.
"We have customers who are third and fourth generation customers in Dunlap because of our hometown service and commitment," Billingsley said. "We want to have that same service and community focus here in Ooltewah."
With the new branches, Mountain Valley assets topped $200 million, Billingsly said.
But bank officials say they are looking for even more growth with plans to open a new branch, on average, every couple of years.
"We're looking up the I-75 corridor, probably in Cleveland or Dayton areas, but we don't have any immediate plans for another branch at this time," Billingsley said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.