BANKING : Plaza Savings Is in a State of Expansion--to Nevada, Florida . . .
One of the state’s top providers of home mortgages continues to plant new loan offices across the nation, and its operators are encouraged by the new business sprouting up in these depressed times.
Plaza Savings & Loan in Santa Ana plans to open two more out-of-state loan offices by the end of March, which will give it eight offices in seven states outside California.
In the state, Plaza has 12 offices--including its full-service branch in Santa Ana--and it plans to open one in Torrance in the next six weeks.
The aggressive expansion is the result of a need that Plaza Chairman John T. French sees for “geographic balance and diversity.” Essentially, Plaza does not want to risk its financial health on the economic stability of one area, such as Southern California, its birthplace.
The out-of-state expansion began less than a year ago. In April, Plaza opened a loan production office in Portland, Ore. Then came others in Phoenix and Hollywood, Fla.
An initial public offering last fall by Plaza’s parent company, Plaza Home Mortgage Corp., raised $32 million and contributed to the S&L;’s growth.
The company quickly announced that it was opening loan offices in Andover, Mass.; Bellevue, Wash., and Houston. This week, it added Las Vegas and Boca Raton, Fla., to the list. The out-of-state offices operate as Plaza Funding, a division of the S&L.;
“We are pleased that out-of-state funding is performing,” said James T. Weld, Plaza president, “but total loan origination still is down.”
The S&L;, one of California’s major providers of home loans to minorities, funded $314 million in loans last month, down from $436 million in January, 1992. The S&L; still gets most of its business from Californians, and the long-running recession has deflated the real estate market.
French says he thinks concerns about the economy have lessened, however, as interest rates have stabilized or edged lower. He said the thrift has “begun to see improvement in loan production in the past couple weeks.” But it is the out-of-state offices that are delivering.
“We are experiencing a significant rise in loan production from our loan origination offices outside of California, a trend we believe will continue,” he said.
At the end of December, the Portland office was ranked among the top 10 mortgage originators in Oregon, French said, and the Phoenix office was ranked 11th in Arizona.
