Madison Marquette Acquires Bank Portfolio from Truist

Lemonade, an investment arm of Madison Marquette that specializes in “surplus retail acquisition” has acquired a portfolio of 144 properties from affiliates of Charlotte-based Truist Bank.

The properties in the bank portfolio were sold for a wide range of prices—from close to $1M to as low as $10K, but the company declined to specify the total transaction value. The outlets are in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

According to its website, Lemonade focuses on portfolios of vacant or soon-to-be vacant corporate-owned properties that are single-tenant, stand-alone retail outlets.

“This transaction begins the process of transforming vacant properties back into useful assets for dozens of communities,” said Madison Marquette principal Josh Anderson, in a statement.

The $66B merger of BB&T and SunTrust Bank in 2019, which resulted in the formation of Truist, was followed by the closure of 822 bank branches by the merged banks, a process that was accelerated by a huge consolidation of bank branches nationwide during the pandemic.

The wave of bank branch closures during the pandemic, which shuttered 2,700 bank outlets in 2021 as consumer preference shifted to digital banking, dropped off in Q2 2022, according to a report from S&P Global.

According to S&P data compiled as of June 13, only 248 bank branch closures were reported in the second quarter, down from 809 in Q1 2022 and the lowest quarterly total since Q3 2020.

Like many other sectors of the US economy, the banking industry is rethinking its staffing needs amid a nationwide labor shortage that has available workers demanding higher wages.

Many banks are opting to modernize their branches to more technology-focused models in order to operate with less staff and adapt to changing consumer preferences while closing fewer branches, the S&P report said.

Banks are paying higher wages for fewer workers and shifting their personnel models to focus on consulting rather than transactions, the report said.

Bank branch closures peaked at 1,182 in Q4 2020, with closures totaling nearly 2,000 in the first year of the pandemic. In 2021, 853 branches were closed in Q1, followed by 811 and 735 in the second and third quarter of last year. The number of branch closures dipped to 307 in Q4 2021 before surging back up to 809 in the first quarter of this year.

According to S&P, 28 US banks have reduced their overall branch footprints by more than 20% since the beginning of 2020.

The largest reductions since January 2020, by percentage, were made by HSBC, which shut more than 80% of its branches, Thrivent Trust (80%) and Axiom Bancshares (64%). Measured in the number of branches shut, Truist topped the list with 822 branch closings, followed by US Bancorp (USB) at 654, Huntington Bancshares (354) and Capital One (168).

As what has been called “The Great Consolidation” in the banking industry began in earnest in 2020, branch closures were accelerated by lockdowns that curtailed retail shopping, as in-store outlets residing in groceries and other stores were among the first to be chopped when bank footprints were reduced, GlobeSt.com reported.