Monday, November 2, 2009

Another one bites the dust...

The banking crisis scored a direct hit on the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) closing all 17 branches of San Francisco based Pacific National Bank. The FDIC seized all PNB branches, and in turn sold them to Minneapolis based US Bank, which now assumes control of all former Pacific National Bank locations and operations.

Pacific National Bank was hit particularly hard when the real estate development company Hines, defaulted on a $152 million loan tied to the Watergate Office Project in Emeryville. In addition to Watergate Towers, PNB was also involved in financing a number of other high profile projects (including the 137Ksqft lease for gaming company Zynga in San Francisco), and their recent challenges (and now closure) leaves a big question mark regarding how and when those projects will move forward.

To read more, see the stories in the Contra Costa Times or the San Francisco Business Times.

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