Real estate firm buys former N.C. branch of bank 

Real estate firm buys former N.C. branch of bank

NORFOLK, Dec 08, 2012 (Menafn - The Virginian-Pilot - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --A three-story former branch of Bank of the Commonwealth on North Carolina's Outer Banks was sold to a real estate company.

Family-owned Outer Banks Blue has moved its headquarters into the 16,000-square-foot building at 3732 N. Croatan Hwy., Kitty Hawk, company President Tim Cafferty said in a news release.

"This building was mired in a negative history, but with our purchase and the infusion of energy from my team, we believe we will make this building's future very bright," he said in the release.

The company purchased the building from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. A spokesman for the FDIC said the property sold for 1.6 million.

The building had been owned by a consortium of former Bank of the Commonwealth executives, board members and their family members.

The FDIC seized that branch and others in Hampton Roads after the bank collapsed last year. Three of those executives who owned a piece of the Kitty Hawk branch are under indictment on bank fraud charges.

Southern Bank, which bought Bank of the Commonwealth's assets, took over the bank's headquarters on Boush Street, a branch on Granby Street, three branches in Chesapeake, a branch in Suffolk, and three branches in Virginia Beach.

Two former Portsmouth branches, one on London Boulevard and the other on West Norfolk Road, remain for sale through the FDIC receiver handling the bank's assets. A former branch in Ocean View also remains for sale or lease. Other closed bank branches had been leased.

Tim McGlone, 757-446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com

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