The recent news that Enterprise Bank sold out to Independent Bank Corp, aka Colossal Bank, is bad news for Downtown Lowell.
Subsidiary Rockland Trust will take over the branches, sure. But don’t for a second think the 250+ backroom employees who work in DTL will all be retained. Sources tell me a 50% reduction will eventually take place. I’ve also heard it could affect as many as 300 employees across all locations.
I don’t blame Colossal Bank. They saw an opportunity and took it. I blame the stockholders who sold out their community and the principles the bank was founded on.
Blackwater and Vanguard are just evil companies doing evil company things in the name of “fiduciary responsibility.” The scorpion bites the frog simply because it’s in its nature.
I’m talking about local stock holders who took the opportunity to cashed out for themselves, maybe killing a downtown in the process.
It’s the stuff “It’s a Wonderful Life” is made of, had George taken the leap. This will hurt.
It may take a while to play out. Rockland will want to bleed things slowly to avoid negative publicity. But I fear the last, large, private employer in DTL will be bled out and carved up.
Hopefully, the city is actively planning to recruit someone to fill the inevitable void.
Can Tewksbury, I mean Lowell 5 come back to DTL?
Let’s not wait and see how this plays out. We have a pending apocalypse. Let’s get prepped.
I don’t know for sure who perpetrated the greedy move to kill the bank and its legacy, but I kind of do.
There is nothing technically wrong with what has happened…but killing DTL so you get wealthier? These guys did their employees and the downtown business community dirty.
This is no longer a local bank, the bank George Duncan built from the ground up. I’ll be sure to treat it like the colossal, corporate beast that it is. And I’ll be sure to offer a lump of coal to whoever sold out DTL.
7 responses to “Greedy Stockholders Play Grinch to DTL”
I can definitely guarantee that there will be a massive staff reduction as a result of the takeover of Enterprise Bank Corp. I myself have gone through five bank takeovers of a well known local bank in downtown Lowell, and have seen significant staff reductions in the Lowell area as a result of these takeovers. George Duncan was an employee of this bank, before he started Enterprise Bank Corp.. The sad part of the current takeover is the small investor that purchased Enterprise Bank Corp. stock, because they believed in this bank, as opposed to the investors that had thousands of shares in this bank. Downtown Lowell is slowly going down the drain because of greed. So sad!!!
I said this as soon as I saw it. Another long standing DTL business gone. It’s a shame and will only hurt DTL even more than it is now
I am a stockholder of Enterprise Bank who purchased the stock because I believed in George Duncan and Jack Clancy. Now that it has been bought out by Rockland Trust it is no longer a Lowell Institution. I am deeply sad for Lowell and the current employees.
Yup. Didn’t even get a good price for it. What a shame.
Incredibly sad story, right before Christmas. Many of those employees were long time, loyal employees that truely believed the Bank would remain independent and be there for the community. They worked incredibly hard, together to build the Bank up, carry it through challenging times, only to have this happen. I wish the best to each of them and their families.
This speaks volumes to me in regard to why Mr. Clancy stepped down, I’m sure he didn’t want to screw over all the employees that will surely be losing their jobs. George obviously doesn’t care.
One can hope that the downtown employees can do a Market Basket style standoff to save the bank and DTL.
Another blow to Downtown Lowell, for sure, but also a big blow to local banking. The days of doing banking with neighbors that had a vested interest in seeing customers succeed is almost gone. I recall that Enterprise Bank was founded exactly because they wanted Lowell to have a local banking option during all the consolidation that took place in the late 80s. How sad that they succumbed to the very thing they rejected back then.