SELBYVILLE — A bank well-known for serving the tourism industry just south of the Delaware border will be opening a new branch in Selbyville, aiming to target the client base who live in eastern Sussex County.
The Bank of Ocean City, headquartered in Ocean City, Md., recently presented plans to Selbyville town officials to build a 1,700-square-foot branch in the Mason Dixon Shopping Center off U.S. Route 113. Opening is targeted for May 2023.
“We’re not interested in growing for the sake of growing, we’re looking to fill the needs of the community,” Bank of Ocean City President and CEO Reid Tingle told the Delaware Business Times. “If you look at a map, the next closest banks are WSFS and M&T Bank in Millsboro. The Bank of Ocean City aims to serve primarily those who not only live in Ocean City, but those who work in Ocean City and might go home in Selbyville or Fenwick Island.”
Founded in 1917, the Bank of Ocean City today has seven offices in Worcester County, Md., mostly concentrated within a 17-mile radius of the barrier island. With a mission to be the premiere bank of those who work in Ocean City’s multi-million tourism industry, the bank had $575 million in deposits and $625 million in assets last year.
The Bank of Ocean City’s assets have grown by 26% between 2020 and 2021, according to its financial statements. Deposits have also steadily grown 36% between 2019 and 2020. The year-over-year increase in 2021 for deposits was 28%.
This will be the Bank of Ocean City’s second Delaware branch, as it relocated one northern Ocean City branch in 2016 to Fenwick Island.
“The idea behind that was to serve a more traditional, tourism-focused market,” Tingle said. “Our market is along the Route 1/113 corridor, primarily on the east side of that. We have no interest in being the biggest bank out there. We want to serve our community well, and Selbyville is a natural fit.”
As Delaware’s largest county by land mass, Sussex County can be broken down along Route 113. On the eastern side of the highway lies Lewes, Bethany Beach and Rehoboth Beach, and the western side is more rural with more farms and wide open spaces. By 2050, the population in Sussex County is expected to hit 307,544, according to the Delaware Population Consortium.
And as the population continues to grow, more homeowners will start to look west to find affordable options in exchange for a slightly longer drive to the beach. Selbyville, Frankford and Dagsboro — the three towns along Route 113 between Millsboro and the Maryland border — are expected to grow 26% to 5,895 people in the next 30 years. It could be even more with unincorporated areas like Roxana along Route 54.
Looking west between Selbyville and Fenwick Island, there is a Tidemark Federal Credit Union, a PNC Bank and a Federal Savings Bank concentrated on Route 54.
