Business leaders form new Naperville bank

Eighteen Naperville business leaders have partnered to establish a new community bank, possibly by next year.

The group, led by Scott Wehrli, secretary-treasurer of DuKane PreCast Inc., each invested at least $200,000 to form the First Community Bank of Naperville.

While the Naperville bank seeks a charter, it will open by mid-June as a branch of the First Community Bank of Joliet at 2728 W. 75th St. in Naperville. Stephen Morrissette, chief executive officer of First Community Bank of Joliet, also is an investor in the Naperville bank.

"We've been planning this for about a year and believe we've put together a group of people who have the wealth of knowledge and background to make this successful," said Wehrli, a seventh generation Naperville resident. He will become the new bank's chairman.

The investors aim to provide a traditional form of community service and work with individuals as well as small and mid-sized businesses, he said.

"I believe we see all these mega-mergers doing nothing but making life for small and mid-sized businesses miserable," Wehrli said.

Once the full-sized community bank is operating, it will offer services and account products to businesses as well as individual savers. The bank likely won't offer home mortgages. Wehrli could not say how much the new community bank would have in assets or a timeline on when it would apply and possibly receive a charter.

Investors include James Bergeron, owner of Tessa's Enterprises; Pamela Meyer Davis, CEO of Edward Health Care Services Corp.; Mark J. Goodwin, director, Cath Lab of Edward Hospital and executive vice president of Midwest Heart Specialists; William Hayes, CEO of Esser Hayes Insurance Group; Ray Kinney, president/co-owner of MinuteMan Press; and Brad McGuire, chairman of Jackson Moving & Storage.