Bank of the Cascades is venturing for the first time into lending for business aviation.

The bank in April hired its first senior vice president for aircraft lending, Dan D. Lee, as part of a foray into a larger realm of financing and refinancing equipment purchases. Lee said Wednesday that he’s worked exclusively in financing aircraft purchases for the past 20 years. He said the market for business aircraft is robust and still gaining strength.

“We’re not quite where we were seven years ago,” Lee said.

Back then, small jets, for example, after initially losing value, sometimes gained value. Today, the type of aircraft flown for business — turboprops and small jets — are holding their after-sale value as opposed to actually appreciating, he said. But demand for business aircraft is growing, and the business will eventually hit its stride again, he said.

Sales of all general aviation aircraft — generally smaller airplanes with piston engines, turboprops or small jets, flown for personal or business purposes — produced in the U.S. peaked in 2008 at $13.35 billion. By 2012, sales fell to $8.02 billion, according to the General Aviation Market Data website. By 2014, U.S. general aviation aircraft-makers sold nearly $12 billion in airplanes, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Of 1,631 general aviation aircraft sold by U.S. firms last year, 843 were either turboprops or business jets, according to the association.

Businesses interested in owning their own aircraft are typically wealth management firms, manufacturers or part of the health care industry, Lee said. Previously with Executive Capital Partners, where he specialized in business aviation financing, Lee is also active in other organizations, such as the National Business Aircraft Association, the Experimental Aircraft Association and other industry groups. He is not a pilot, he said.

Bank of the Cascades will focus on financing the purchase of turboprops and small jets, aircraft that seat six or more and can cost $2 million-plus.

The advantage of owning their own airplane can mean savings for some firms, said Chip Reeves, chief banking officer for Bank of the Cascades.

For example, he said, “an insurance company based in Idaho with operations in Oregon and Northern California. The CEO took himself and the leadership team and essentially did operations reviews in Oregon in the morning, Northern California in the afternoon, then flew back to Idaho. That’s three to four days of work done in one day. There’s no way to do that with commercial aviation.”

Reeves said Bank of the Cascades, with about $2.4 billion in assets, headquarters in Bend and branches from Boise to Eugene and Medford, expects to find business in aircraft financing across the West. It could be the leading edge of a broader play in financing other large and expensive equipment purchases, he said.

“Equipment financing is an area that both (Bank of the Cascades President and CEO) Terry Zink and I experienced with prior roles at other institutions,” Reeves said.

Business aviation is not the sole reserve of the highest paid CEOs, he said. Clients the bank expects to serve are heading up small and medium companies, Reeves said.

“Our average loan and deal size is $1 million to $1.5 million,” he said, “our primary borrower is a standard, middle-market, $10 million to $100 million” company, more a part of Main Street than Wall Street.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815,

jditzler@bendbulletin.com