The $243 million-asset First International Bank in Plano has filed to open three branches in Nevada that would be its first new ones since December 2000 and first outside the state.
The branches of the Asian-American-owned bank are planned for both urban and rural areas in southern Nevada, where Chinese investors have been actively acquiring real estate, a local businessman said.
The subsidiary of First International Bancorp Texas has seven branches, six in the Dallas area and one in Houston, that cater to the growing Asian-American populations in those markets.
Ralph Kerr, First International's president, said he does not comment on expansion plans, but the applications filed with the Texas Department of Banking say the bank plans to open offices in Las Vegas, Pahrump, and Amargosa Valley.
Though Las Vegas and Pahrump are established markets, Amargosa Valley has just over 1,000 residents; it has not had a bank branch since the 1980s, when a Valley Bank of Nevada office was housed there in a mobile home.
Michael DeLee, a real estate broker and the owner of DeLee & Associates in Amargosa Valley, said price surges in Las Vegas and Pahrump have pushed investors farther out, to the Amargosa Valley where cattle outnumber people 10 to one.
He said that news of the planned branch was well received locally as being a sign of growth.
Amargosa Valley is near the Yucca Mountain Repository, which is being developed to hold radioactive waste.
