This week, we’re filing paperwork with the OCC to move New Horizon Bank’s headquarters from Powhatan to Richmond.

On paper, it’s a change of address. In reality, it’s the bank catching up with itself. Most of our team already works out of our Forest Avenue office in Richmond, and most of our balance sheet now comes from Richmond, Norfolk and markets outside Virginia.

We were founded in Powhatan in 2009, and that history matters to me and to everyone who helped build this bank. Our Stoneridge branch is staying open, and nothing changes for our Powhatan customers.

But how we got to Richmond is a better story than any filing, so let me tell it.

A lunch that changed our plans

In August 2024, I visited One South Commercial to share the New Horizon story. Over lunch, I told Ken Campbell we wanted a presence in Richmond. After we ate, Ken walked me downstairs and showed me some open space on Patterson Avenue. That became our first location in the City of Richmond.

Not long after we signed the lease, I went back to Ken with another question. We were building our three-year strategic plan, and I wanted to understand our long-term options for the Powhatan operations center. Lease it? Sell it? What was the market saying?

About a week later, Ken came back with an answer I didn’t expect: a buyer.

My first thought was “Ken, that wasn’t the assignment”

Selling that building wasn’t in the plan yet. But opportunity doesn’t check your strategic planning calendar. We took the deal and went looking for a new home for our operations team. We found it on Forest Avenue, just down the road from the Patterson office we’d just leased.

If you’d handed me a whiteboard and asked me to design our Richmond footprint from scratch, I never would have drawn it that way. But every decision made sense when we made it. In my experience, that’s how growth actually happens.

Bringing it all together

Now we get to connect the pieces. We’re closing our Loan Production Office on Patterson Avenue and bringing that team to Forest Avenue.

I’ll miss Patterson. It’s a building with real history and character, and we’ve hosted some great events there with our friends at One South Commercial. But two offices a few minutes apart doesn’t make sense anymore.

And while we’ve built a digital-first bank, including our own technology subsidiary, the best ideas still come from people in the same room. So we’re investing in Forest Avenue: more space, faster decisions, and a war room where our teams can gather, work a problem and move fast. Honestly, that might be the most New Horizon thing about this whole story.

If you bank with us, nothing changes about how you reach us. Forest Avenue is a full-service branch, Stoneridge remains open in Powhatan, and your banker is still your banker.

What’s next

Set a direction. Move when the opportunity shows up. Learn as you go. Keep building.

We started in Powhatan, and we’re proud of that. Today we serve customers across Virginia and beyond, and our headquarters finally reflects it.

If you’re in Richmond, come see us on Forest Avenue. The coffee’s on me, and once the war room is ready, I’ll show you where the next chapter gets built.