Community Central Bank Corp. of Mount Clemens, Mich., is buying River Place Financial Corp., a small, nondepository trust company.
River Place was founded in 1983 to manage the trust and private banking needs of the Stroh family, which made its fortune brewing beer. In 1999 the family sold Stroh Brewing Co., which was founded in Detroit in 1902.
Community Central announced its deal for River Place on Wednesday but did not say how much it would pay.
John Stroh 3d, a River Place director, said the board has spent the past year looking for the right buyer.
"In the end, Community Central stood out," he said in the press release announcing the deal. "We needed a bank that was large enough to accommodate our family's varied business interests but small enough to be able to respond quickly."
Community Central's 9-year-old Community Central Bank has $391 million of assets and branches in Mount Clemens and in Rochester Hills. The parent company's president and chief executive officer, David A. Widlak, called the deal an efficient avenue into the trust business.
"This merger puts Community Central Bank immediately into the trust business without incurring many of the start-up costs and traditional ramp-up time associated with starting from scratch," he said in the press release.
The Stroh family will be represented on Community Central's board, and Mr. Widlak said he hoped his company's connection to the Stroh family would persuade other wealthy families to bring their trust business to Community Central.
River Place's CEO, William A. Penner, would become the president of Community Central's new trust division. He has run River Place since 1994. Before that he spent 30 years at Comerica Inc. in Detroit.
Community Central did not say when it expected the deal to close. Ray Colonius, Community Central's chief financial officer and spokesman, did not return calls for comment.
