Off the Shelf

To get a sense of where Florida banking is headed, take a road trip along State Road 29 to the small town of Immokalee in eastern Collier County.

Better known for its migrant-labor camps and penny-per-pound tomato battles, Immokalee is also home to one of the biggest bank failures in Florida in this downturn. When it failed on Jan. 29, Florida Community Bank of Immokalee was the sixth-largest of 69 banks headquartered on the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Naples, as measured by its $836 million in assets.

Ranked as the fifth most-profitable bank in the country in 2006 by SNL Financial, Florida Community Bank collapsed under the weight of bad real estate loans it made in surrounding areas where it opened branches. Its most high-profile bad loan was the one it made to a surgeon who planned to build an amusement park in Fort Myers.