(Additional photographs below.)
To submit Business Bulletin announcements, click on image.
Pentucket Bank officially opened its new downtown Haverhill main office Tuesday, while honoring a former president and chairman and who presided over the same corner for years.
President and CEO Stephen M. Jaskelevicus welcomed public officials, business people and other dignitaries to the formal return to One Merrimack Street at White’s Corner. He praised late bank President and CEO and later Chairman Edmund J. Cote Jr. who saw opportunity at the busy intersection.
“Ed had a long commitment to this community—I think over 37, 38 years—for Pentucket in various roles, and was instrumental in getting Pentucket Bank down here on the corner,” he said.
He presented Cote’s son and later President and CEO Scott D. Cote with a plaque dedicating the new building in the elder Cote’s name. His son noted how the bank, which operated near the corner since the early 1960s, took over the same land the new branch occupies. “My father had just purchased the building, which had a numerous amount of tenants in it. BayBank had vacated it and sold it to Pentucket,” he explained.
Cote also noted the site’s historical importance from Haverhill minutemen who assembled there before joining the Revolution to retailer Rowland H. Macy who open his first department store.
Haverhill Mayor Melinda E. Barrett not only welcomed the bank back downtown, but said it will help fulfil a new vision of downtown Haverhill.
“It’s going to be transformative to the downtown, to the city as a whole. We hope to have an 18-hour economy down here where people not only live, but they work here,” she said.
Salvatore Lupoli Jr., part of the development team that built the new branch and 660-car parking garage and plans retail space and apartments, called Haverhill an “up and coming city.”
Sen. Barry R. Finegold, who spoke for the city’s legislative delegation, praised the bank for “staying local.”
“It matters that you’re still committed to the community, you’re still committed to making small loans. You’re committed to helping people. And, if you ask me really cities like Haverhill and cities like Newburyport and the Merrimack Valley really need. It needs local banks that are committed to the community,” the senator said.
Among bank officials present were River Run CEO Lloyd L. Hamm Jr.; sister Newburyport Bank President James J. McCarthy; Senior Vice President, Chief Retail Officer Lynda Reissman; Senior Vice President, Community and Public Relations Director Leanne Eastman; Vice President, Advertising and Social Media Manager Jennifer Eastman; and Pentucket Bank Market Manager Nicole Molesso, who oversees the Stadium and downtown branches.
At-large City Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan and Ward 1 Councilor Ralph T. Basiliere represented the Haverhill City Council.
Haverhill Mayor Melinda E. Barrett and Pentucket Bank President and CEO Stephen M. Jaskelevicus. (WHAV News photograph.)