Sovereign Bank Celebrates Grand Re-Opening of Gold Star Boulevard Loca

WORCESTER, Mass., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Sovereign Bank today celebrated the renovation and expansion of its Gold Star Boulevard community banking office. The celebration also included the opening of a new mortgage center serving the Worcester County region. Sovereign invested more than $2 million in extensive renovations to the 8,000-square-foot building that now includes an elevator, new teller areas and other upgrades to serve its business and retail customers.

"Worcester is a very important market for Sovereign Bank as we are committed to providing all our customers with the best banking experience in the region," said Bill Bedord, Sovereign Bank's senior vice president and regional banking executive for Central Massachusetts. "Our investment in the new 'bricks and mortar' will give our customers confidence that they are doing business with a bank that cares about giving them a welcoming and professional banking office."

The newly revamped Gold Star Boulevard location is one of five Sovereign Bank branches in Worcester and is designated as a business banking center, serving small to medium-sized companies and large corporations. The branch will provide a special teller line exclusively serving business customers.

"We can be very helpful to small businesses by providing loans and other services tailored to their needs. For the larger corporations, we also have the financial tools they need to conduct their business and achieve success," said Kathy Rouleau, vice president and Community Banking manager for Sovereign Bank.

Sovereign has established a new Mortgage Banking Center on the second floor of the newly renovated Gold Star Boulevard location. The Center will be supported by a staff of three mortgage banking representatives who will help homeowners finance home buying throughout Worcester County. Sovereign also specializes in assisting first-time homeowners, as well as helping existing homeowners buy their next home or refinance their existing loan.

The Grand Re-opening celebration included a check presentation of $5,000 to the Oak Hill Community Development Corporation. The funding will be used for the CDC's First Time Homeowners program, one of many programs by the CDC to revitalize the Union Hill, Oak Hill and Upsala Street neighborhoods of Worcester.

Including branch manager Kathy Rouleau, Sovereign's Gold Star Boulevard community banking office includes 14 team members. The full-service office offers retail and business banking as well as investments. The team is multi- lingual, with a total of four languages spoken including Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Persian. Sovereign's Gold Star Boulevard team members are: Kelly Booth, Nancy Emmetts, Jonathan Kelly, Allison King, Amy Peterson, Nanet Puch, Charles Roth, Eliane Shultz, Laila Sherzai, Christine Somers, Claire Turcotte, Susann Venza and Soodabeh Yazdan.

The Gold Star Boulevard branch includes two drive-up ATMs, with two additional ATMs at the Shaw's Supermarket adjacent to the bank. For additional customer convenience, Sovereign has more than 30 ATMs located throughout Worcester County in Honey Farms store locations.

About Sovereign Bank

Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., ("Sovereign") , is the parent company of Sovereign Bank, a $59 billion financial institution with more than 650 community banking offices, over 1,000 ATMs and approximately 10,000 team members with principal markets in the Northeast United States. Sovereign offers a broad array of financial services and products including retail banking, business and corporate banking, cash management, capital markets, trust and wealth management and insurance. Sovereign is the 19th largest banking institution in the United States. For more information on Sovereign Bank, visit http://www.sovereignbank.com/ or call 1-877-SOV-BANK.