IBERIABANK now has eight branches in Birmingham. The company will move into its new operations center in Hoover in the latter half of 2019.
IBERIABANK has had an increasingly strong presence in Birmingham since its entrance into the city in 2009. The company’s commitment to Birmingham was only strengthened when late last year it was announced that the bank had purchased a building at International Park in Hoover, providing double the space for growth.
“[The purchase] is really a function of recruiting,” said Greg King, executive vice president and Alabama regional president of IBERIABANK. “We have found Birmingham is a great place to recruit banking talent and this gives us more space to do that. We needed more space to accommodate the talent we needed to hire. It’s a great facility.”
Last year the company announced 100 jobs and committed to a $24.5 million investment, landing it on the Birmingham Business Alliance’s New and Expanding Industry List. The Lafayette, La.-based company now employs over 250 at its operations center and has moved many of its operations as a company to Birmingham, including growing from three to eight branches in the past nine years.
The new space, at 130,000 square feet, is over double the size of the 60,000-square-foot space the company currently leases on Grandview Parkway. IBERIABANK plans to occupy the space in the latter half of 2019. The space in Hoover will allow the company to bring even more jobs to Birmingham, King said.
“There are more jobs to come,” he said. “That is very much in process. We are targeting another couple hundred [jobs].”
IBERIABANK’s move to Hoover is one in a list of many companies relocating to the city, including McLeod Software, which announced at the end of last year its plans to move its headquarters to Hoover and double its workforce to 600.
“We are excited that IBERIABANK has chosen the City of Hoover as their regional headquarters and corporate operations center,” said Hoover Mayor Frank V. Brocato. “Hoover already has a strong existing cluster of corporate operations, so decisions by companies like IBERIA further develops that ecosystem in our city. As we continue to recruit these types of businesses, it aligns perfectly with our mission to advance this type of footprint in Hoover.”
Birmingham was attractive to the company as a location to expand its operations because of its banking legacy, King said. King himself is from Birmingham, and IBERIABANK’s CEO Daryl Byrd attended Samford University and worked for Vulcan Materials before getting into the banking industry. King said Birmingham’s deep history in the financial services industry provided no shortage of talent in the region, and that the city had been on the company’s radar for a long time. In 2009, when the company entered the Birmingham market – up against giants like Regions, BBVA Compass and Wells Fargo – the company found the environment competitive but friendly as it carved out its niche.
“Birmingham is a very competitive environment with banks on every corner,” said Monica Drake, public relations coordinator for the company. “IBERIABANK has been welcomed with open arms. We found that middle market, multi-generational family-owned businesses were being overlooked by larger banks. We have had the opportunity to come in with the look and feel of a smaller bank but with the product offerings of a larger financial institution and make these businesses a priority.”
“We have a strong belief that our company can only be as dynamic as the communities we serve,” Drake said. “Our team-oriented, relationship-focused culture promotes making the right decisions each and every day so that we are well positioned to deliver extraordinary results to our stakeholders – associates, clients, shareholders and the communities we serve.”
King said serving the Birmingham community is a top priority for the company.
“We want to be good stewards of the community we live, work and play in,” he said. “For us to have any success in banking, the community has to thrive as well.”