Bank of the Cascades will extend its footprint to the coasts of Oregon and Washington with the addition of 15 bank branches it plans to acquire from Bank of America, a deal announced Wednesday.

The acquisition, expected to become final in the first quarter of 2016, will also bump Bend-based Bank of the Cascades up several notches in Southern Oregon market share, from ninth to third, said Debbie Amerongen, Bank of the Cascades executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

Terms of the deal call for Bank of the Cascades to pay the value of all 15 Bank of America branch deposits, about $707 million, plus 2 percent, according to documents filed Thursday by Cascade Bancorp, Bank of the Cascades holding company, with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About 40 percent of those deposits reside in checking accounts, a measure of solid household relationships with its customers, said Terry Zink, president and CEO of Cascade Bancorp.

The acquisition will further grow Bank of the Cascades 18 months after it doubled its assets to about $2.3 billion by acquiring Home Federal Bank, formerly of Nampa, Idaho. Zink said total assets will grow to about $3 billion with the Bank of America deposits. After the Home Federal merger, Zink pledged to lend $2 billion and grow the bank to $5 billion in assets.

Adding the Bank of America branches “makes us the largest community bank in Oregon,” he said. “It certainly gives us market share in places that we want to be.”

With the new branches, Bank of the Cascades’ reach will stretch from Mountain Home, Idaho, to Bandon on the Oregon Coast.

Bank of the Cascades already has branches in Medford and Grants Pass, where it will pick up three Bank of America branches. All of those branches will remain open for the foreseeable future, Amerongen said. All Bank of America employees at the acquired branches will be kept on, according to the SEC filing. Zink estimated those branches employ about 75 people. The deal will give the bank 53 total branches.

“I do believe these are markets where community banking can thrive,” he said. “Bend is a very good example of that; we are an incremental part of the economic process in markets where community banking makes a difference.”

For the third quarter, Cascade Bancorp reported $5.1 million in revenue, with $26.3 million more in loans than the previous quarter. The bank pegged year-over-year growth in loans at 11.9 percent. The new acquisitions present opportunities for further lending, particularly to small businesses, Zink said.

“A lot of these markets have a fair amount of small businesses,” he said, “not large corporations, but small-business customers that are really our focus.”

Acquiring the Washington bank branches complements the September opening of a five-member commercial loan office in Seattle by Bank of the Cascades.

Britney Sheehan, a Bank of America spokeswoman in Bellevue, Washington, said the bank sold the 15 branches rather than close them in order to save the jobs of those employed there. The decision also encompassed factors such as customer habits and opportunities for growth. She declined comment on the overall performance of those branches and their profitability.

“I think, again, I would talk about the obvious point of selling versus closing,” Sheehan said Thursday.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com