Banking On The East End, M&T Bank Opens Branch In Financial Desert – How It Happened

May 2022, I received an email from Maya Dillon, then director of corporate communications for M&T Bank that had purchased People’s United Bank, Bridgeport’s ultimate community institution, with an ask: can you fill up our entire communications team about Bridgeport, its current state and prospects for the future?

I was also familiar with the bank’s longevity having conducted an oral history with People’s top executives.

The building that retired People’s CEO David Carson built Downtown more than 30 years prior, would be Buffalo, NY-based M&T’s regional headquarters which had grown into a footprint covering the mid-Atlantic states into New England.

I am gratefully also Carson’s biographer so perhaps at the very least I can provide some perspective.

One month prior, M&T’s acquisition of People’s United was valued at $8.3 billion. The combined company employs more than 22,000 people with a network of more than 1,000 branches and 2,200 ATMs that span 12 states from Maine to Virginia.

This is not a small financial institution.

Everyone based in corporate Buffalo was coming to Bridgeport.

When I walked into Bridgeport Center May 4, 2022, I really didn’t know what to expect. I thought perhaps it was a casual chat with a handful of communication team leaders.

I checked in and was told Maya would come out to greet me shortly.

I waited about 15 minutes for the prior meeting to conclude and then Maya made her presence. She was genial, thanking me for showing up.

When I walked into the meeting room I was dazed. A team of more than 40 stone-faced communications professionals staring at me. I have spoken to much larger crowds, promoting my book projects or invitations to speak about my years working for Donald Trump, but this one was vastly different because these are professionals counting on me to share something they didn’t know they could implement into something.

There was no pay for this, just a courtesy for an opportunity.

And, one idea emerged.

First, thankfully, my friend Tim Hodges, a leftover from Peoples, was in the room. He’s a glorious person that went back to the Carson days when the bank was at its apex of community care. I did not know he’d be in the room.

Tim built me up like a rock star (Tim, please stop!)

It freed me up, however, because I actually knew someone in the conference room.

I was also fortunate that my friend Brian Durand, who served for three years as Chief of Staff to Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy, was part of the M&T communications team.

So, I regaled the communications team in bank history, its corporate generosity and connection with, I dare say, one million local customers.

I spoke about development projects underway including Anthony Stewart’s Honey Locust Square in the East End banking and food desert. No bank, no grocery store, no pharmacy for a prideful community.

We matter, don’t we? Yes you do.

I explained Covid delayed the project, but looked like it’s a good bet to happen.

A member of the communications team chimed in.

“Okay, let’s talk to René about placing a branch there.”

René is René Jones, at the time one of four Black CEOs in the Fortune 500, born into a biracial military family. He’s the man in charge.

What I thought would be 15 minutes ended up more than an hour of give and take and explaining the political players in the city and the state, as well as showing them development projects ongoing from the building’s 14th floor views of Downtown, including the amphitheater, Steelpointe Harbor and Honey Locust Square, still a few years away.

When a large bank absorbs another, transitional growing pains take over. Some bank customers were upset about the transition from People’s to M&T, the log-ins to their accounts, etc.  Pols started screaming, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda. It’s what they do.

Things just don’t happen magically, it takes time.

Fast forward a bit. I called Mayor Joe Ganim.

“Joe, I think there’s a solid chance M&T places a branch in the East End. Write a letter to René Jones.”

“They’re not going to do anything, they don’t care, they’re too big.”

(Joe and I have a long history together so we can yell at each other, no feelings hurt. I usually yell louder, and then he hangs up on me.)

“You don’t know unless you ask. Jesus, I’ll write the damn letter. Just sign it. By the way plug in Ernie and Eneida.”

My reference was to the City Councilors who represent Bridgeport’s 139th District Ernie Newton and Eneida Martinez who’ve lobbied for the things their constituents desire. Love them or loathe them, they’re good at constituency work.

(Ernie told me once: Lennie, Black people have money!)

I didn’t have to write the letter. Someone else in the office did. My guess is Tom Gaudett, then deputy chief of staff, now CAO. Joe’s good on his feet verbally, not a letter writer.

So, more time passed in 2023, then the word came…

M&T Bank (NYSE: MTB) today announced that it will open a new branch in Bridgeport’s East End neighborhood. The branch will be located on Stratford Avenue between Newfield Avenue and Central Avenue within Honey Locust Square, a new retail development led by Anthony Stewart of Bridgeport’s Ashlar Construction LLC. The branch is expected to be completed in early 2024, pending regulatory approval

It took longer than expected for Stewart to progress the project, but on October 15, M&T Bank will be the first tenant into the East End’s Honey Locust Square.

Statement from M&T Bank:

“We are thrilled to open the doors of our new M&T Bank branch in Bridgeport’s East End.  This milestone is a direct result of meaningful conversations with local leaders and residents, resulting in a tangible resource for residents of the East End and East Side,” said Frank Micalizzi, M&T Bank’s Regional President in Bridgeport. “This branch is a lasting commitment to expanding financial access and economic opportunity in this vibrant community. We look forward to welcoming our neighbors and small business owners and continuing to work together to build a prosperous future for Bridgeport.”