Bank with ties to Venice builder fails
Florida Community Bank — the institution that had lent $21 million to troubled Venice home builder Jacques Cloutier — was closed by state and federal regulators on Friday.
The bank, which operated branches in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda, was closed by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation and immediately sold to Premier American Bank of Miami, a bank newly formed from the ashes of another that failed last week.
The Friday closing was Florida’s second bank failure of 2010 and will cost the federal fund for such institutions $352.6 million.
Florida Community was one of the only lenders that had not foreclosed on Cloutier, the owner of one of the region’s largest builders, J&J Homes.
Among other loans, the bank gave Cloutier a $3.85 million mortgage that helped him finance a deal for a 25-room resort, restaurant and dive shop in the Florida Keys in 2006.
via Bank with ties to Venice builder fails | HeraldTribune.com.