Fueling Economic Growth with NBT Bank

In this episode of Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, host Katie Zilcosky sits down with David Kavney, President of Central New York and Pennsylvania at NBT Bank. From supporting major economic developments to helping CNY leaders tackle the housing crisis, Kavney shares how NBT Bank is strategically aligning its services to drive innovation and regional impact. 

Tune in to this episode to learn more about NBT Bank’s expansion into new markets and how they are well-positioned for emerging opportunities. 

CONNECT 

CenterState CEO Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube 

NBT Bank LinkedIn

Host: Katie Zilcosky LinkedIn 

Transcript

0:00

This is Talk CNY, a semi-monthly podcast by CenterState CEO. We're an independent nonprofit committed to creating inclusive, equitable, and sustainable economic growth in Central New York. Join us as we meet the people and explore the projects driving the regional economy forward. This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. It takes many different partners in order to make some of the ambitious projects happening in our region possible. And one of those essential partners is our region's financial institutions, like NBT Bank. NBT Bank is our presenting sponsor here. So not only does their support make this podcast possible, but they are also working to help the entire region grow. To discuss this today on Talk CNY, we have NBT Bank's President of Central New York and Pennsylvania, Dave Kavney. Dave, thank you so much for being here with us today. Glad to be here. Thanks for hosting. So you have a different title from the last time you were on the episode of Talk CNY. I think it was last July. Just timing out about the same time last year. Tell us a little bit about your new role and what kind of expanded perspective it gives you. Sure. I'm still the Regional President of Mohawk Valley. It's a separate region. It includes Herkimer, Oneida, and Madison Counties, and also the Central New York region, which is Onondaga, Oswego, and Cortland Counties. But I've also assumed a leadership position within our Southern Tier region, which is five counties, from Chenango County over towards Cooperstown, our Binghamton region, and then our very large Northeastern Pennsylvania region. Oh wow. So how's that been? I mean, it's been since the start of the year, what new perspectives, new outlooks have you garnered from this bigger area? It's been a lot of fun. We've got separate leadership and separate teams in each of our regions. That's how NBT Bank goes to market. We have separate leadership, business banking teams, commercial teams, and retail teams. So we've been able to collaborate in a lot of different ways and share best practices, talk about employee succession issues, employee opportunities that really transcend the regional lines, if you will. So even though we're locally organized, we've had the ability to really think on a larger scale. We've been able to combine sponsorship dollars and support some organizations that have locations across our different regions. It's really helped from a customer standpoint, too, as you probably know, have locations in maybe Syracuse and Binghamton. Absolutely. And other locations. So we've been able to really coordinate how we serve those customers. That's great. Yeah. More exciting news is that you've recently kind of wrapped up the acquisition of Evans Bank, expanding your presence all the way across the Thurway now from Western New York to the Capital Region area. So, what does this acquisition allow you to do and give you new ways to engage? It does a couple of different things. For our new teammates out in the western part of the state in Buffalo and Rochester, two different new regions for us. It brings a larger bank, a larger balance sheet to those clients, if you will. So they can lend more money than maybe they could have in the past. They were a little over$2 billion in size. It also brings some of the products we have that Evans Bank didn't have: insurance, wealth management, and private banking. So that's what it does for them, and the cultural fit has been fantastic. So what it does for us is, I just talked about the different regions. It provides us with two more regions in New York State where we are headquartered and very focused on. Culturally, a great fit, but it also increases our scale and allows us to really continue to leverage our technology and things that, costs go up. As a bank our size, we can really invest a lot of dollars in technology to help our customers operate a little more efficiently. So even though the acquisition was Rochester and Buffalo, it helps customers across our footprint. Yeah, I was going to say, you mentioned it a little bit that if you're in Syracuse, you might have a location in Binghamton, you might have one in Rochester, in Buffalo. So, how does this acquisition help the business community and help them reach their goals? As far as the business community, there are more companies than we think of that have locations in the different cities across New York State. It's not just banking, it's accounting firms, law firms, and manufacturing entities. It's really allowed us to take a larger picture of the state and make sure that we're working with our customers and all their locations and not just the ones that line up with our NBT footprint. This location is, of course, the outline of the New York SMART I-Corridor, the Semiconductor Tech Hub, federally recognized, or the only semiconductor Tech Hub in the nation. So that's really exciting for you, I bet. How is NBT Bank engaging in some of these big cross-Thruway projects, like the Tech Hub and others that we know of? As you know from our previous podcasts, we are in the Hudson Valley up through Capital Region across the Thruway to Mohawk Valley, Syracuse area, and now into Buffalo and Rochester. We've been very focused on the chip semiconductor years. We've been focused on what's going on across the state from a technology standpoint. This really allows us to take that work and what we've learned and carry that into our new teammates and clients in the western part of the state. So we're going to try to take what we've learned so far and moved that into the western part of the state. It's a relatively recent acquisition a couple months in, so we're not there yet, but that's the plan. That's great. And the Tech Hub is just one of many really great exciting projects happening across the region. Just broadly, I mean, can you reflect on that a little bit? Tell me what it's been like as a leader of a financial institution to find new ways to engage in creative solutions to help get these projects over the finish line. We took the stance upfront that we were going to try to learn this industry. It's not something that existed in New York State. We actually went out to Boise, Idaho. We met with different economic institutions out there. We had an opportunity to meet with some Micron folks about what was going to happen here in Central New York, and we wanted to hear it from both Micron and try to figure out how we could help them. We're not going to be Micron's bank, given our size, but we wanted to figure out how we could help that transition to this community be a little smoother for them, their employees, the families, et cetera. Then we also talked to the economic development agencies out in Boise about what has this meant, having Micron and some other technology companies out in Boise over the years. We learned that they're a fantastic community partner, and we also realized they've grown out in Boise, Idaho, for 40-plus years. So as a little bit of a trend up, we're going to see a quicker ramp up, if you will, and more of an immediate impact. So it's slightly different, but we learned a lot about what they mean to the community, their involvement. A lot of these suppliers will likely locate in the Central New York, Greater Central New York area. So we're going to try to figure out how we can help them. We've had a lot of phone calls on housing and commercial real estate and things of that nature. So we're well positioned for that. But every time we see it across the state, we've got a large presence in Albany. So New York creates GlobalFoundries. We've seen what's happened over in the Capital area. It's extremely impactful, and to slightly lesser degree, but still meaningful, Danfoss and WolfSpeed over in Utica the last few years have built a new plant and also done some hiring. So it's exciting. And as we think about even the Route 81 corridor and Binghamton with some battery technologies, there's just a lot from a technology standpoint going on around the state. So we're just trying to be well-positioned and make sure we can help our customers. We're going to take a quick break here, but, first, we have a word from our presenting sponsor, NBT Bank. At NBT Bank, we know that this day starts with this one. This day starts with this one because no matter how unforgettable the extraordinary days are, there's a lot of everyday that leads up to them. You can count on NBT Bank to help you get started. NBT Bank, it starts here. Welcome back. This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. I am here today, joined by Dave Kavney. Dave, thank you so much for being here. Pleasure to be here. Thank you. Before the break, we were talking a little bit about some of these big projects, not only here in Central New York, but all across the Thruway. I want to dig a little deeper on some of the projects that have popped up recently and also talk about them specifically from the perspective of a financial institution. I think a lot of the time we hear a lot from the broad view perspective, but you guys have a very unique perspective on what's supporting these things. So I want to start with Micron, obviously the big one. How have you guys been engaging in the Micron process in the plans and development? I mean, you talked about it a little bit beforehand about visiting Boise, Idaho, but have there been other specific steps you've taken or things you've experienced in the past few months that have been really intentional in order to make this process smooth and our growth sustainable? We've learned quite a bit about what should happen when Micron comes, and we're trying to be very well-positioned from a real estate need. We've talked a lot with our customers about that, and when is the right time for them to start that? I mean, we live in Central New York, so a lot of people would like to see some shovels in the ground before they actually start that, but there's a lot of work that goes on upfront. So we're doing all that banking stuff, if you will, which is critically important. We're also, for the last three, or this will be our year three of supporting a career advisor position at On Point for College, which is really trying to work inside the city schools in Utica and Syracuse and try to steer some of the kids into some of the vocations trades, if you will, that will be benefiting from the Micron work. We are trying to be a really good community partner, not just from a banking standpoint, but also from making sure this rising tide lifts all boats once it starts up. Moving down the Thruway a bit. Chobani just announced a big expansion in the Rome region, and I know that you guys are supporting that in the ways a financial institution, a good partner would. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? How are you guys working with or around Chobani to make that project successful? Yeah, another great announcement. If you think about it, there's been some fantastic work announcements, projects being done across this entire region. If I think about Mohawk Valley and Central New York, a new hospital in downtown Utica, a renovated hospital in Rome, SUNY Upstate's announcement of a significant investment in their ER, the Chobani announcement, Turning Stone's got a very large project going on. I drive along the Thruway and see that Feldmeier is expanding their plant. So private industry, manufacturing, and healthcare. It's an exciting time to be in Central New York. I don't want to say aside from Micron, but there's a lot going on in addition to that. Right, all around. So if we think about Chobani over in Rome, which is a fantastic opportunity, a thousand new employees, direct employees, which we know has an economic benefit beyond that. So we are well positioned in that market already to support our small business partners, residential customers, residential mortgages, housing needs, et cetera. It's a great announcement. We do quite a bit of agricultural lending, so I think I read that they need some astronomical amount of milk as we go forward, which makes total sense. So we're well-positioned to help our agricultural and farmer customers as well. That's great. Yeah. So coming back down and a bit of a different project, Interstate 81 is currently, I mean, anyone who's been into Downtown Syracuse is very aware of the construction happening, but you guys are also involved in supporting that and how you can be good partners to the new businesses that pop up. Can you talk a little bit more about how financial institutions and infrastructure projects connect? Yeah. As an example, Route 81 and a seemingly endless supply of construction are going on around the area. We have a lot of clients that are actually doing work on Route 81 and some of the other projects. So that's part of what we support. But once the viaduct is down, we do expect to see some revitalization of the center part of Syracuse. So our small business teams will be heavily involved with that. Working with clients on new opportunities. Obviously, we do an awful lot with residential real estate. We do multi-family. We do a lot of affordable housing. So we're well-positioned across the whole gamut once the road construction's done, if you will, and the rest of the opportunities start to make sense. Yeah, I mean, NBT Bank has been a really great partner in CenterState CEO's housing work, trying to find creative solutions to some of the housing challenges we're facing, and knowing that we need more housing in order to grow sustainably as a community. So can you speak a little bit to your efforts, NBT bank's efforts around the housing challenges and what you're hoping to see from the community to meet the need? So it's a great question. We're working very closely with our customer base and they think about these housing needs going forward. There is a desire to have a different form of capital. Construction costs have gone up over the last several years, as we all know. So we're working with different organizations figure out a way to fill that capital stack with additional funding to make sure that these projects can get off the ground. I know that NBT Bank is involved with Housing Visions, helping first-time homeowners. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Yeah. We support Housing Visions in a large way. They're a fantastic customer of ours. They identify a location for affordable housing, so we help with the construction of those loans. We do that across the state and other parts of our multi-state footprint as well. But they're doing the work. They're a great organization. We're there to help them with the financial part of it. I mean, the financial part is a big part of it. It helps these projects get over the finish line. Has there been, in these years of growth recently, things you've learned to help people who are trying to get their projects going, make it a little smoother? It's interesting. We actually just talked about this morning when entities surround themselves with strong partnerships, it really works well. Entities that have done this before, maybe your attorney, maybe you're an accountant, maybe an advisor, once you've done this. It's very complicated financing. So once you've done it, it seems to work really well. So those that have been more successful from not necessarily a long-term standpoint, but coming in on budget and financially on time and all that sort of stuff, they've always had really strong partners around them, which I think is critically important. Yeah. Well, Dave, thank you so much for your time today. We always enjoy having you in. Thank you very much, Katie. CenterState CEO's podcast Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, is available on all major podcast platforms or centerstateceo.com. Additional content and clips can be seen across CenterState CEO's social media channels. For new episode reminders, be sure to subscribe in your favorite podcast listening app, and don't forget to leave a quick review or five-star rating. Thanks for listening to Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank.