He's a Driving Force in the Business Community

Tom Burton calls it "the Beauty." That's the name he gave to a 1953 Buick Super he acquired more than 20 years ago and now displays at several car shows each summer. As he talked about it, Burton said it is most definitely not the kind of vehicle most Baby Boomers - and he's among the older members of that generation at 65 - set out to put in their garage upon being bitten by the "old-car bug," as he called it,

General Contractor: Bremik ConstructionHe's even won a few trophies at such events.The addition's plywood facade did not match the original brick building, so the team replaced the old plywood with a masonry and storefront system. The team also removed the non-original roll-up garage doors, and then referred to historic photographs to install carriage doors on the maintenance bays."This is not a car you dream of having as a kid; most guys think about the old muscle cars - the Camaros, Mustangs, Firebirds, or Chargers," said Burton, president and CEO of Hampden Bank, adding that, while he also likes those hugely popular models that now carry big price tags, he never really looked at anything other than that huge, chromeladen, four-door sedan. Part of the reason was a fairly limited budget for this pursuit, but there was much more to it, as he explained in a recent issue of the bank's newsletter, which focused on the broad subject of hobbies.Completion Date: 2010Owner/Developer: Fire Station No. 7 LLC/Venerable PropertiesIt wouldn't be a stretch to say Burton is a lot like the car that now has its own heated garage and gets regular pampering. Like the 58-year-old sedan, he represents stability, not flash; dependability, not speed - although he says the eight-cylinder Buick still has plenty of giddyup if one is so inclined, although the gas mileage is quite poor. "I don't know what it is; I just know it isn't good.""The local savings banks that traditionally did just mortgages, except for maybe a few consumer loans, all got into business banking," he explained. "So now, in this marketplace, they dominate the business-banking market - the Uniteds, Chicopees, Westfields, and ourselves are dominating that area.In 1991, KPMG had a downsizing in its partnership ranks - about 25% of them left or retired. "And that left a lot of pressure on those who remained, including myself," said Burton. "We went from four partners in our banking group down to two, and that was pretty stressful."Stark said it is not unusual for tornadoes to strike this time of year. What is unusual is how late in the spring these sorts of storms are finally hitting.His Big BrakeYet the bank president and the Super would both earn a good number of style points.Besides, he has a number of other things on his plate at the moment, especially leadership of the bank through a period that, while it certainly doesn't compare with the landscape-changing turmoil of the early '90s, comes with its own set of more modest but still-intriguing challenges (more on them later).The unsettled weather is expected to continue through the weekend, with 3 to 6 inches of snow in the mountains, including on Pikes Peak, and chances of thunderstorms at lower elevations each afternoon.As hobbies go, this one can get fairly expensive - Burton has a plastic model of a 1953 Buick Skylark on the bookshelf in his office, a car that would fetch $125,000 to $150,000 on the open market because so few were made but not all-consuming . . . if one keeps things under control, of course. "It can certainly become work if you have too many," he explained. "At one time I had two cars, and that really became work, and I found that I can have one and thoroughly enjoy that one car instead of doing two or more."In his 18 years at the helm, Burton has overseen pronounced growth - from $150 million in assets to just under $600 million, and from four offices to 10 - while also orchestrating a change in operational mission, from a bond bank to one that now has a large portfolio of loans, both residential and commercial.For this, the latest in its Profiles in Business series, BusinessWest talked at length with a business executive who's been a driving force, figuratively and it seems literally as well, in the region's business community and, especially, the financial-services sector.Burton told BusinessWest that this is actually the second Buick Super he's owned. The first was in relatively poor condition - "it was a lot junkier" - when he bought it, and he didn't do much with it.And he's taken the bank public, a step he considered the best option to attain the capital needed to fuel an expansion plan that has taken the institution well beyond its roots in downtown Springfield.The tornado damaged a roof and garage door of a house in the Peaceful Valley neighborhood and rolled and destroyed a camper trailer. The home is still inhabitable.Start Date: 2009Looking ahead, he said that Hampden, like all the banks in this region, have to essentially fight their way through this time of general sluggishness in the economy and be positioned for the day when the housing market rebounds and business owners regain the confidence needed to seek capital for expansion and new ventures.Thousands of people saw the twister, which hit at 4:23 p.m., ran for three-quarters of a mile and disappeared into the clouds at 4:29 p.m., according to the weather service analysis. The damage path was 30 yards wide."The commercial-banking landscape is diminished, and the savings banks have really taken over the commercial-banking realm," he continued. "We filled a void; we needed to expand, and with the consolidation of the commercial banks, there was an opportunity for the savings banks, who filled that in. And all the commercial lenders we've hired, and that others have hired, came from commercial banks, so the players, the individuals, are very much the same people.""It was so visible for many miles that we were getting multiple reports, a lot of confusion about where it was located, how far away people were seeing it," said Jennifer Stark, meteorologist in charge of the weather service's Pueblo bureau, who surveyed the damage Thursday.He found the second in North Carolina after a fairly lengthy search on an Internet that was then still very much in its infancy. After successfully negotiating a price, he had it shipped north. Burton said it doesn't get out of that heated garage much - it still has only 44,000 miles on it - but he does display it at several area cruise-night gatherings, including a huge show in East Granby that features between 600 and 800 cars.

"The commercial-banking landscape is diminished, and the savings banks have really taken over the commercial-banking realm," he continued. "We filled a void; we needed to expand, and with the consolidation of the commercial banks, there was an opportunity for the savings banks, who filled that in. And all the commercial lenders we've hired, and that others have hired, came from commercial banks, so the players, the individuals, are very much the same people."