West Gate Bank – Our Interest Is You

In July of 2018, West Gate Bank (westgate.bank), a family-owned community bank based in Lincoln, NE, opened three branches in the Omaha market. The expansion into Omaha marked the first time in the bank’s 50-year history that a branch was opened outside of Lincoln. The growth into this new market has been a goal for a long time.

Owned by the Sjulin family since 1980, West Gate Bank has kept the idea of service to the community at the forefront of its mission.

West Gate Bank is celebrating its 50 year anniversary in 2018, and we are excited to bring our brand of Nebraska community banking to Omaha.
– Carl Sjulin, president of West Gate Bank

Sjulin also explains, “As the Omaha and Lincoln economies grow closer, it’s a natural extension of West Gate Bank’s franchise to expand into Omaha. For the past several years, we have been actively lending in Omaha, and with the addition of these branches, we will be able to expand our commercial and mortgage teams and add business cash management services.”

Located throughout Omaha and Bellevue, West Gate Bank acquired their new locations from Great Southern Bank earlier this year and officially opened as West Gate Bank on July 23. The locations are: 180th and Pacific St. in West Omaha; 97th and Q St. in Ralston; and 10th and Cornhusker Rd. in Bellevue.

Focusing on delivering the personal service that West Gate Bank prides itself on, each location offers a full-service menu for personal and business accounts. At West Gate Bank, “Our Interest Is You” is more than a slogan. We are committed to remaining family-owned and focused on serving the people of Nebraska. Our vision of servant leadership is based on a few, simple core values including providing you with the best banking products and good, old fashioned Nebraska customer service. Business Banking services, commercial lending and mortgage lending are also available.

To ensure that the West Gate Bank culture was instilled in these new branches and staff, a number of employees from Lincoln transferred to the new Omaha locations. Kristi Thornton, senior vice president, Omaha retail market manager, oversees the bank’s retail services; Jon Dittenber, senior vice president, Omaha chief lending officer, oversees the commercial lending efforts; and Shawn Schreiner, business banking officer, is working to provide business cash management services in the Omaha market. In addition to the Lincoln staff that moved, a number of new hires have joined the team. Brandi Ballan, business banking officer, came over in the acquisition to continue her role working with business customers. Tyler Peterson and Steve Kucirek are the mortgage loan officers in the market.

On Friday, November 16, West Gate Bank branches in Omaha will hold a customer appreciation event at all three locations. Each branch will host free food through the day and have prize drawings, including a grand prize to give away a gold Apple iPad (5th generation) Wi-Fi 128GB. New customers can open a checking account that day and receive special incentives, including a free personalized debit card ($10 value) and a free Brentwood® compact grill. Details about the customer appreciation event can be found online at westgate.bank.