BancVue to expand

BancVue Ltd. has launched a site search that could take it from its current 25,000-square-foot home to 65,000 square feet or more.

This year, like the past six, has been one of rapid growth for the Austin-based company. The software it makes is sold to small and midsize banks, many of which have charged forward with technology upgrades to gain marketshare from struggling big banks.

Jay Lamy, a principal with Aquila Commercial, confirmed that the company is representing BancVue in its search for more space, but declined to give more details. Lamy, Chris Perry and Victor Young of Aquila are working with Matt Watson of AustinOfficeSpace to represent BancVue.

According to real estate sources, BancVue is searching for office space to lease or to buy, and hopes to make a decision by mid-2010.

The company, which develops online products designed to provide community banks and credit unions with banking products comparable to those offered by larger competitors, occupies space on Riata Trace Parkway in Northwest Austin. That space represented a significant expansion for the company when it moved there in March 2008 from a 9,000-square-foot office space, but it’s not nearly big enough to accommodate BancVue’s visions for its future.

BancVue executives couldn’t be reached for comment for this article, but CEO Gabriel Krajicek, when interviewed for a recent company profile in the Austin Business Journal, said BancVue’s target market is large and largely untapped.

He said the credit crisis is fueling a surging interest in community banks and credit unions, which number a combined 15,000 nationally. BancVue, meanwhile, has attracted more than 650 clients, leaving plenty of room for his company to grow.

“We’ve got a ways to go,” he said. “The market is big and we want to keep it growing.”

Troy Holme, a senior vice president in brokerage and leasing for CB Richard Ellis’ Austin office, said BancVue is in a subleased space with a two-year lease, and is looking for a long-term home.

Holme said the company has been looking in the Northwest Austin submarket, where it will find no shortage of options.

According to Oxford Commercial/Cushman & Wakefield Alliance’s third quarter office report, the Northwest Austin submarket had an overall vacancy rate of about 14.5 percent in that quarter, with average rental rates of $21.68 per square foot annually.

Holme said that while the current trend in the market is to lure potential tenants in with full tenant improvement buildouts, free rent and other concessions, not all landlords’ lenders will allow such offers.

BancVue, which was ranked first in its revenue category for the Austin Business Journal’s Fast 50 awards, has seen its revenue surge from $1.5 million in 2006 to more than $21 million in 2008. Its employee count has also risen, from 34 employees in 2006 to 130 employees by 2008. It plans to employ 230 by the end of this year, Krajicek told the Austin Business Journal when the company was profiled for its top ranking in the Fast 50.

BancVue has more than 650 clients, up from 450 during 2008. About three years ago, BancVue created First ROI LLC, a marketing and consulting firm that helps small financial institutions round out their technology portfolios. This year, the company launched a new brand of products called Kasasa that BancVue officials said is prompting growth rates of 150 percent on new accounts and 372 percent on deposits for its clients.