Vista Bank in Dallas adds six bankers to new Florida team

Vista Bank President Dan Sheehan says he's "having fun putting the band back together."

Sheehan's comments came after the Dallas-based Vista on Monday disclosed the hires of six bankers who'll help spearhead the bank's expansion in Florida. The $1.9 billion-asset Vista announced its entry into the Sunshine State in June. It hired Sheehan, the former CEO of Professional Holding Corp. in Coral Gables, Florida, to lead the effort. All six new Vista associates worked with Sheehan at Professional, which was acquired by the Stuart-based Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in January.

Sheehan, who helped found Professional in 2008, served as CEO of Professional Holding for eight years before stepping down in February 2022.

Vista's new hires include Michael Woody, who will serve as Florida market president, and Steven Quinn, who will serve as Florida senior credit officer. "Many of these folks I hired years ago," Sheehan said. "We know each other well. It's not an experiment. There's great chemistry."

"There's not a lot we can't do with respect to commercial and industrial lending, residential lending, commercial real estate lending," Sheehan added. "We've got what I'll refer to as a bunch of skilled position athletes that cover quite a bit of bandwidth."

Vista opened its first Florida branch, in Palm Beach Gardens, last month.

Professional grew from $230.5 million of assets to $2.9 billion during Sheehan's eight years as CEO. However, Sheehan stopped short of forecasting targets for assets and deposits at Vista. "We have similar plans here. I don't think it's Vista's intention to dip its toe in the water. ... We're going to hire great people and look to scale in the state."

Rising interest rates and other headwinds have forced many banks to tighten credit standards and, in many cases, scale back lending, according to Sheehan. While Vista, too, is being cautious, it's ready to leverage local market expertise to take advantage of quality deals that might not have been available in a stronger economy, Sheehan said.  

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"We're still being selective on who we're extending credit to and what projects we're financing and so forth, " Sheehan said. "But I will tell you, in the absence of a lot of competitive debt capital floating around, net-net there's great opportunity to capture market share."

Vista is one of several out-of-state banks that have announced expansion plans in Florida in recent months. The $25.9 billion-asset United Community Banks in Greenville, South Carolina, closed a $115.9 million deal for First Miami Bancorp in July. In May, Toronto-Dominion Bank said it would focus on South and Central Florida as part of an ambitious plan to open 150 new branches by 2027. Meanwhile, Bryn Mawr Capital Management, a unit of the $20.4 billion-asset WSFS Financial in Wilmington, Delaware, said this month it is opening a wealth office in Boca Raton as part of a deal to acquire the assets of an investment advisory firm in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware .