LEWISTON – TD Banknorth will bring 100 new support jobs to town as it prepares for a $1.9 billion acquisition of a New Jersey-based bank.
TD Banknorth President Michael McNamara said Friday that a bigger Lewiston base is needed to support the purchase of Hudson United Bankcorp. Stockholders of both banks approved the purchase earlier this week.
“What we do leads back here, to Lewiston, for the entire footprint of the company,” McNamara said. “Now, that extends as far southeast as Philadelphia because of this latest acquisition.”
McNamara, Gov. John Baldacci and state and city officials were on hand Friday to announce a $7 million renovation at the Bates Mill complex.
The company is renovating the northern half of Mill No. 3, near the center of the mill complex. It has occupied the southern half of the building since 2001.
The expansion would make space for a customer-service telephone call center, records and loan processing offices and storage areas. It will give the company an additional 60,000 square feet of space.
TD Banknorth is easily the biggest tenant at the mill, accounting for 700 of the 1,200 jobs there, said Lewiston City Council President Renee Bernier. The company, then Peoples Bank, first moved into the Bates Mill complex in 1998, taking up 48,000 square feet in Bates Mill No. 7.
“Their investment then has helped make it visibly what it is today,” Bernier said.
Since then, the company has expanded its operation to occupy the entire Mill No. 7 building, expanded into the southern half of Mill No. 3 and built a customer-service telephone operation in the northern part of the city, on Mollison Way.
Joe Hanson, vice president of operations for the bank, said the bank has already outgrown the Mollison Way call center.
“So, we are expanding that operation in multiple sites, including this Lewiston operation,” he said.
TD Banknorth has 518 operations in New England, New York state and Connecticut, including bank branches, insurance agencies, wealth management operations and investment groups. The Hudson United Bank purchase brings in 204 more branches in New Jersey, New York state and southeastern Pennsylvania.
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