Gold Coast Bank Coming to Mineola

Suffolk-based Gold Coast Bank is set to launch their first foray in Nassau County in September, choosing a location Mineola to be the first branch to open.

“We actually had a long search,” President and CEO Joseph Perri said. “What we really wanted to do is get a branch location where we could sort of be in the center between Garden City and Mineola. What we found is most banks try to be in Garden City but we know that Mineola from a business standpoint has always been growing and we thought that Mineola and Garden City both would benefit from our brand of community lending.”

The bank, which began operations in March, 2008, plans to open the branch at the corner of Mineola Boulevard and Old Country Road in the  at 210 Old Country Road on September 15. The branch will occupy a space of approximately 2,000 sq. ft. on the first floor, which Perri believes will become the new “flagship branch” for the expanding bank.

Gold Coast currently has four branches in Suffolk in Islandia, Huntington and Setauket and plans are underway to bring more branches to Nassau, appropriately along the “Gold Coast” of the North Shore. Manhasset and Port Washington have been identified as early targets. The Mineola branch would open with about 5 employees, which Perri said was a typical size staff.

The bank and in a list recently compiled by InvestingAnswers, Gold Coast Bank placed among 359 banks out of a total of more than 7,300 in the nation to achieve a perfect Texas Ratio of 0.0.

This is a designation determined through a special metric called the “Texas Ratio” that can be used to find banks that are the furthest from failure. The closer the Texas Ratio gets to zero, the lower the bank’s risk of failure.

The total listed assets of Gold Coast Bank were $175 million as of June 30 which the bank said was up 37 percent from last year.

While the bank will offer a teaser rate on a 2-year CD when the branch opens – a 1.15 APY with a one-time “step-up” option to increase the rate – Perri points out that “we do a number of different things,” from the larger banks, including allowing businesses groups and organizations to use the wifi-equipped conference and presentation materials at no charge and allowing local artists and photographers to hang their works in the local branches.

A 3/4 inch oak floor made from wine barrels being installed in the Mineola branch was also pointed out as one of the company’s “green” efforts. Perri also noted that the company donates a portion of ATM fees to certain charities.