Continuing its rapid expansion throughout the Northeast, Berkshire Hills Bancorp (BHLB) in Pittsfield, Mass., said Tuesday that it has acquired Greenpark Mortgage Corporation of Needham, Mass.
Greenpark, founded in 2001, has offices throughout eastern Massachusetts and its lenders are licensed to originate loans in all six New England states, as well as Mississippi. The mortgage firm will remain in Needham, a Boston suburb, and operate as a division of Berkshire Bank. Its founders, Paul Gershkowitz and Patty O'Meara, will remain with the company as first vice presidents of Berkshire Bank.
"We are so pleased to bring the well regarded Greenpark team into the Berkshire Bank family," Michael P. Daly, Berkshire's president and chief executive officer, said in a news release. "This partnership enhances our residential lending capabilities and our efforts to expand our reach into eastern Massachusetts."
The deal for Greenpark is Berkshire's fourth acquisition in a little over a year. Last year it bought Rome Savings Bank in upstate New York in April and acquired hometown rival Legacy Banks in July, and just two weeks ago it completed its acquisition of Connecticut Bank and Trust in Hartford.
As part of its strategy to expand beyond western Massachusetts, Berkshire has also opened roughly a dozen branches in upstate New York in recent years and in late 2011 it opened a commercial lending office in central Massachusetts and hired a team of lenders away from rival Sovereign Bank to run it.
Berkshire now has $4.3 billion of assets and 68 branches in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Vermont.
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