"Joe Lunchbucket" will soon have a bank in Columbus, Ohio.
William A. Cooper, the chairman and chief executive officer of the $12.4 billion-asset TCF Financial Corp. in Wayzata, Minn., is one of the founders of a new bank in Columbus targeting the same working-class customer base - which he refers to as the "Joe Lunchbucket" crowd - that TCF has courted so successfully.
Cooper State Bank is expected to open in July with about $8.5 million of capital. Mr. Cooper said in an interview Monday that it would have no connection to TCF, which does not operate in Ohio.
He also said Cooper State was the brainchild of his son, the Columbus-area real estate investor William A. Cooper Jr., who approached his father about the idea last year.
Mr. Cooper Sr., who will be the new bank's chairman, said he views it as a different kind of challenge and a chance to apply the lessons he has learned in 35 years of banking.
"It's a lot of fun to start something from scratch," he said.
News of Cooper State's formation has received press attention in Columbus Business First as well as in the Twin Cities newspaper Pioneer Press.
One lesson the elder Mr. Cooper has acquired is that location is as important to banks as it is to hotels, retail stores, and fast-food outlets, so Cooper State's first branch will be in a commercial district abutting four middle-class neighborhoods.
Another nugget is that working people value convenience, so Cooper State - like TCF - will be open seven days a week.
Mr. Cooper Jr. said that his banking philosophy is identical to his father's, and that Cooper State's approach will help it compete with the market's well-established players, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Columbus' Huntington Bancshares Inc.
"We identify with the regular guy, and that's who we want to bank. Hopefully, he'll appreciate us and our attitude," he said.
Consolidation in Ohio prompted his idea for the bank, Mr. Cooper Jr. said. More than a dozen community banks there have been acquired in the last year and several other deals are pending.
"The midsize and little banks are going away here. That is why I decided to start a bank," Mr. Cooper Jr. said.
The Columbus area has hardly been a hotbed of start-up activity. According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. statistics, only eight banks have been formed in Franklin County, where Columbus is located, over the past 25 years, and only two have been formed in the past five.
The Coopers said these banks have focused on affluent, growing suburbs - exactly the opposite of Cooper State's strategy.
Mr. Cooper Jr., who worked at TCF from 1988 to 1992 and went through its internal management program, will be the new bank's vice chairman.
Dan A. Apple, a former commercial loan officer at Unizan Financial Corp. in Canton, has been hired as the CEO.
Mr. Cooper Jr. said he has worked with Mr. Apple for over 10 years on real estate financing.
