Lake Forest Bank Changes Hands

A Chicago mortgage lender has acquired Baytree National Bank & Trust, a troubled Lake Forest bank, Crain’s Chicago Business reports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Federal Savings Bank will expand to the North Shore following the purchase of the institution at 664 North Western Ave. Federal Savings CEO Steve Calk told Crain’s that not only will the new ownership continue to make business and commercial real estate loans as Baytree did, but 50 jobs will be added in Lake Forest from the change.

Baytree, which has about $90 million in assets, employs 13 today.

Baytree’s struggles date back to their launch in 2000 and were magnified later in the decade before founder Howard Adams passed away in 2009. Since 2010, the owners had been an investment group that Crain’s claims “rescued the Lake Forest bank from imminent failure.”

Calk said the deal marks a homecoming of sorts.

“We’re a North Shore family. We grew up in the area,” he said. “We knew we would want a bank on the northern border of what we cover.”

Read more via Crain’s Chicago Business