ORLANDO, Fla. — Climate First Bank is now serving customers from a 1920s house in downtown Orlando, and the St. Petersburg-based lender says a second new Central Florida branch is coming to Mount Dora next year.
The downtown branch sits at 215 E. Livingston Street, inside the Lake Eola Historic District. The bank turned the former single-family home, roughly 2,500 square feet, into a working branch, with design work led by KMF Architects. The company put more than $1.6 million into the renovation, and the interior earned LEED gold certification.
The Mount Dora project will be a new building of about 5,000 square feet on U.S. Highway 441, facing the Mellow Mushroom restaurant. The bank expects to spend about $4 million on it. Plans call for a structural mass timber frame, locally sourced reclaimed wood inside, and solar panels on the roof plus vertical bifacial panels that collect light on both faces, with a goal of net-zero energy use.
Once Mount Dora opens in 2027, the bank will have three Orlando-area branches. The other is its 2,120-square-foot Winter Park flagship, which opened in 2022.
Chief executive Lex Ford said the region stands out to the bank for its fast population growth, its small business base and steady demand for home solar. Roughly a third of the bank’s deposits come from customers who bank with it online from around the country, he said.
Climate First has closed more than 9,000 consumer solar loans over the last four years. It also makes commercial loans of up to $40 million in areas that include affordable housing, education, local manufacturing, healthy food and solar. The bank opened in June 2021 and describes itself as a digital community bank built around climate goals.
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