BANKPROV CEO RESIGNS AFTER BANK’S CRYPTO-LOAN LOSS
Dave Mansfield has stepped down as CEO of Amesbury, Mass.-based BankProv, a move the Bank’s board and the former chief executive called a “mutual decision.” BankProv named CFO Carol Houle and Joe Reilly, the Bank’s chair, as interim co-CEOs and co-presidents. Laurie Knapp, chair of the Bank’s audit committee, will serve as board chair, the Bank announced. Reilly is former CEO and chair of the former Centrix Bank, which he co-founded in 1998 in Bedford, NH.
The change in leadership at the Bank followed in the wake of the Bank’s forecast last November that it expects to lose $27.5 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30, due to its lending exposure to the crypto mining industry.
BankProv launched a deposit operation for crypto companies and expanded into business loans to crypto firms several years ago in an effort to break into an underserved market, according to the Financial Brand.
The Bank issued its first Bitcoin-secured crypto business credit line in late 2020, and rolled out an Ethereum-secured credit line the following year, the publication reported.
But by last fall, BankProv said it began to question the financial stability of its borrowers who hold digital-asset mining loans.
While chartered in Massachusetts, a large chunk of BankProv’s business is in New Hampshire, where four of its seven branches are located.
LEBANON COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT SOLD TO DENVER GROUP
The Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Lebanon has been sold to a Denver-based hotel investment group, the second property in the area that’s owned by Norwich Partners to change hands.
Mission Hill Hospitality, a portfolio company of KSL Capital Partners, acquired the 194-room hotel on Morgan Drive adjacent to Centerra Marketplace.
Built and operated by hotel developer David Leatherwood and his Norwich Partners hotel group, the Courtyard by Marriott is considered one of the Upper Valley’s top hotels and regularly accommodates visitors to nearby Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and businesses at Centerra Resource Park, as well as to other Upper Valley institutions.
The Courtyard by Marriott will undergo a “complete renovation of guest rooms and public space to better meet the needs and expectations of today’s travelers,” according to the buyer.
The sales price was not disclosed.
Lebanon city property records show the building and land at the nearly 8-acre site is currently assessed at $15.7 million, the Valley News reported.
Leatherwood’s Norwich Partners last June sold the former Element Hotel on Route 120 for about $17 million to a Massachusetts private equity company that specializes in residential housing projects. The hotel, which opened in 2014, has been closed since a Christmas Eve explosion in 2019 disabled the building’s electrical system.
PRISTINE SURGICAL RECEIVES FDA OK FOR SINGLE-USE ARTHROSCOPE
A Manchester-based medical device maker has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market its single-use arthroscope.
Pristine Surgical plans to market the device for use in minimally invasive surgeries in sports medicine.
The company said its digital device, which is paired with cloud-based software, improves the efficiency, consistency and safety of arthroscopic procedures practiced by orthopedic surgeons examining joints that need repair.
“Clearly this is the most significant milestone in the company’s history,” said CEO Bryan Lord.
FIRST SEACOAST BANCORP CLEARS KEY HURDLE IN CONVERSION
As 2022 came to a close, First Seacoast Bancorp took a major step toward a new corporate structure with the approval of stockholders and members to convert it to a stockholder-owned bank as opposed to the mutual savings bank it had been since its founding in Dover in 1890.
On Dec. 29, First Seacoast Bancorp Inc., the holding company for First Seacoast Bank, announced that its stockholders and the members of the mutual holding company both approved the conversion. The approvals came at separate special meetings for stockholders and members.
Completion of the conversion remains subject to final regulatory approval.
