Anchor Bank Makes a 12-Year Dream a Reality for the Steamboat Island Tennis and Athletic Center

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By Lynn West

 

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Anchor Bank’s Gary Koch has helped Drake Nicholson make his 12-year dream a reality.

Anchor Bank and the new Steamboat Island Tennis and Athletic Center (STAC), both local businesses, have a close relationship. It is not often that such mutual respect between a client and banker is as evident as it is between Drake Nicholson, owner of STAC and Gary Koch, Executive Vice President Chief Lending Officer at Anchor Bank.

Drake Nicholson explained that his dream of having his fourth and eighth grade daughters walk across the street from Griffin School to play tennis and swim has been delayed over the years by many roadblocks in the building process. However, soon his grown daughters will come home to visit and enjoy the facility.

One area of smooth sailing for Drake has been working with Gary Koch and Anchor Bank. With thirty-eight years in the banking industry, Gary took on STAC as his first client a year and a half ago when he came to Anchor Bank.

Founded in 1907 in Aberdeen, Anchor Bank is about as local as it gets, and Drake Nicholson, a long time Thurston County businessman, has been a “mover and shaker in the community!” Put the two together and you have a winning team. Gary Koch said, “It was easy for us to see that Drake exemplified the five C’s of credit: character, capital, credit worthiness, capacity, and collateral, which create the underpinning of a successful business loan.”

Both Drake and Gary cited the upturn in the economy as one reason it was the right time to move forward with the project. “For any start-up business,” Koch explained, “it is necessary to weigh the pros and cons.”  Even though a tennis and athletic center is not a necessity for an individual and doesn’t fit into everyone’s budget, the strong business plan that Drake Nicholson had developed and the low break even point made it a very feasible project for Anchor Bank.

steamboat tennis
The Steamboat Tennis and Athletic Center is set to open in early July.

When asked why he chose to seek a loan from Anchor Bank, Drake said, “I love working with a local bank, and they came highly recommended by another small business. My friend John Campbell found them very comfortable to work with when he opened Capitol City Tennis Club in Tumwater a few years ago.”

Ironically, the building that has housed Capitol City Tennis Club has been sold to a glass company, and the tennis club has vacated the premises. “It is definitely a win for us,” Drake said. “ John Campbell will become the tennis pro at STAC, and his office staff will also be working with us.” He added, “I have known John for a long time. I couldn’t be happier that we will be working together at STAC.”

“While some banks shy away and are not willing to ‘swing a bat at a new business,’” according to Drake, “Anchor Bank helped make the budget work since we had so much into it already.” He said they are just finishing “Phase One and a Fourth!”

This phase includes the STAC building which houses weight rooms, racquetball courts and tennis courts. Planning ahead for future phases, they have created a septic system, water and water retention systems and parking spaces, which will be adequate for all future development.

“We are almost finished with the landscaping, which is so exciting because from the outside, it really looks like it is a business that is ready to open,” Drake reports. The equipment will be arriving this month. Once it is installed and operating, STAC will open. Look for news of the Grand Opening around early July.

steamboat tennis
Staff members of the recently sold Capitol City Tennis Club plan to join the Steamboat Tennis and Athletic Center.

With a scarcity of tennis courts in Thurston County and the closing of Capitol City, Drake is anticipating attracting members from Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater as well as perhaps Mason and Lewis Counties. He hopes to offer student and family memberships and work with tennis players at the local schools.

Gary Koch explained that Anchor Bank is a full service community lender and often funds construction loans for multi-family businesses, medical and dental offices, apartment or other rental properties. Credit decisions are made right here in Thurston County.

Twelve years ago when Drake Nicholson first envisioned a Steamboat Island Tennis and Athletic Center, he did not really fathom the depths of swimming upstream against changing county regulations, systems and codes. With most of those now navigated, at least in this current phase, he said, “I almost had tears in my eyes when I took pictures of the almost completed STAC.”

I’m not sure if Gary is a tennis player, but if he is, he and Drake will be inaugurating those courts with a friendly match just as they have so nicely negotiated their local business relationship.

 

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