Thrust Forward

It's been 10 years since Texas businessman Donald Adam invested $100 million of his own money — the largest community bank capitalization in state history — toward one wild and crazy goal: to build what he called Florida's bank.

That institution, American Momentum Bank, is closing in on its original goal. It has more than $1 billion in assets and 15 branches in Florida, from Winter Garden through Naples, with a concentration on the west coast of the state. In the earlier part of this decade it grew partially by acquiring failed or troubled banks. More recently the bank has found growth organically and in new niche markets.

“We can go after any client in the market we want to,” American Momentum Tampa Bay Market President Porter Smith says. “We will compete with Regions, BB&T and SunTrust and even Wells Fargo.”