A new community bank with roots in Tennessee and Central Florida is coming to the island business district.

No opening date has been announced for Millennium Bank, but work is underway at the corner of Beachland Boulevard and Cardinal Drive, where the building that formerly housed Fidelity Investments is being rehabbed and refitted.

Outside, a parking lot is under construction in the space between that building and the island’s petite post office.

Island resident Byron DeFoor is behind the project. DeFoor is co-founder and manager of Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Contemporary Healthcare Capital, which “offers lending, financing and capital generation such as senior mortgage, mezzanine and asset based financing for healthcare projects in the U.S.,” according to Bloomberg.

He also has a wide range of other business interests in healthcare, hospitality and banking.

In 2016, he developed Renaissance Senior Living of Vero Beach at U.S. 1 and 10th Ave. and he owns the adjoining Grace Rehabilitation Center of Vero Beach.

Through DeFoor Hospitality Group, he and his family own and manage a portfolio of hotels in Chattanooga, North Carolina and Vero Beach, including The Island Inn on Ocean Drive, which DeFoor purchased in 2021, paying $2.8 million for the vintage, 16-room motel.

An LLC connected to DeFoor purchased the former Fidelity building along with the building that houses the post office and a little more than half an acre of land in 2023, paying $5.1 million.

Built in 1973, the Fidelity building where the new bank will be located is about 5,000 square feet, twice the average size of a contemporary branch bank. Branch banks used to be in the 5,000-to-6,000-square-foot range before online banking reduced the need for physical space.

“Millennium Bank, then called Community Bank and Trust, opened its doors for business on June 21, 1999, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to serve the financial needs of the growing areas in eastern Hamilton County,” according to the bank’s website.

It was renamed Millennium Bank in 2016 following its acquisition by DeFoor, who acquired a majority interest in Community Bank and Trust in 2010, and helped recapitalize and grow the renamed bank.

“On June 1, 2020, Millennium Bank acquired Columbia Bank, one of the oldest and strongest financial institutions in Florida, with roots firmly planted in Columbia County for over 100 years,” according to Millennium’s website.

Millennium has six branches in Chattanooga and five in Central and Northern Florida, in Ocala, Gainesville and Lake City.

DeFoor also is a shareholder in Columbia Bank in Lake City and the Bank of Commerce in Sarasota.

From 2015 to 2017, he served as chairman of the Indian River County Economic Development Council.

Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce Board Chairman Bob McCabe said he is pleased at the prospect of a new bank on the island. “I think it’s great. We like the competition, and the timing is good, since another local bank, Synovas, is closing July 31.”

The barrier island currently is served by a number of established banks, including Marine Bank, SouthState Bank, Seacoast Bank, Northern Trust and TD Bank.

When Millennium Bank opens its doors, longtime Vero Beach resident and banker Tori Hume will be on board as regional senior lender, continuing to practice the community-centric banking philosophy she is known for.

Millennium Bank COO Brandon Deering says he and other bank officials are “excited to be coming to Vero Beach.”

Because the new bank is still being designed, Deering could not provide an opening date for the branch or reveal more in-depth details about the project.