Yesterday, Friday December 4, 2009, three more Georgia Banks failed.  This makes a total of 24 failed banks in Georgia for 2009, and 29 failures since August 2008.  The latest victims are:

1.  Buckhead Community Bank was seized and sold by the FDIC to State Bank & Trust.

2.  First Security National Bank of Norcross was also sold to State Bank & Trust.

3.  Tattnall Bank of Reidsville was sold to HeritageBank of the South.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle has an article on State Bank & Trust’s acquisitions and discusses the closure of Buckhead Community Bank:

 

 

Buckhead Community was founded in 1998 with $34 million in assets by investors including Loudermilk, an Atlanta business legend, and featured some of the city’s business elite on its board, including and real estate developers David Allman, owner of Regent Partners LLC, and Julian LeCraw.

It’s failure brings to mind the Sept. 25 collapse of Georgian Bank, another homegrown lender featuring a who’s who of board members and wealthy investors, and a plan to supply capital-hungry developers in a white-hot real estate market.

Like Georgian, Buckhead Community was heavily weighted in real estate development loans that soured with the fallout of the real estate market.

The bank tripled in size every three years from 1998 to 2007, propelled in part by an ultimately crippling decision in 2007 to acquire Allied Bancshares Inc., the parent company of First National Bank of Forsyth County.

 

 

Scott Riddle’s practice focuses on bankruptcy and litigation. Scott has represented Chapter 7 and 11 debtors, creditors, trustees and other interested parties in bankruptcy cases and bankruptcy litigation.  For more information, click here.