Banking on experience

Industry veterans plan to raise $100 million to purchase and revive Beach Community Bank. Moving the headquarters to Tampa was the first step in plans to build a multibillion-dollar institution.

By Andrew Warfield
| 5:30 a.m. September 21, 2018
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Chip Reeves (left) and Carl Chaney are leading the rebuilding of Beach Community Bank. Courtesy Blacksuit FM Photography

Finance

As veterans of the banking industry, Carl Chaney and Chip Reeves know a rare opportunity when they see it. As consultants to the then-failing Florida panhandle-based Beach Community Bank, they recognized all they needed to do was successfully raise $100 million to capitalize on one.

Reeves and Chaney had been hired by Beach Community Bank, formerly based in Fort Walton Beach, in October 2017 to guide it through the bankruptcy and asset sale process, which they successfully completed in July. The success of the plan was based on the pair raising $100 million in investment capital, creating and leading a new management team, and selling $120 million worth of non-performing loans and other real estate at a discount. Bank officials declined to disclose the price of the sale.

Reeves' previous position was president and chief operating officer of Cascades Bank of Bend, Ore. Chaney was president and CEO at Hancock Holding Co., owner of Hancock Bank and Whitney Bank, in New Orleans.