United Community celebrates 75 years of banking, community service

United Community prides itself on its steadfast commitment to serving people and communities over the past 75 years.

This mission has guided the bank since its inception in 1950 as Union County Bank in Blairsville, Georgia. United Community has grown into one of the top financial institutions in the Southeast, serving thousands of customers across six states.

The bank’s growth can be attributed to forward-thinking leadership and calculated expansion strategies. Lynn Harton, United Community chairman and CEO, said the bank has strived to maintain a strong focus on service and its culture throughout its expansion.

Growing the United Community footprint

The vision behind United Community’s growth began with former CEO Jimmy Tallent, who joined the bank in 1984. Tallent helped transform the one-branch bank with $40 million in assets into a regional financial institution with $12.3 billion in assets. Harton credits his predecessor, who retired in 2018, for taking the bank’s focus and services to the next level.

Harton joined United Community as chief operating officer in 2012, starting the bank’s executive presence in Greenville. During his first two years with the bank, Harton helped Tallent prepare United Community for strategic growth across the Southeast.

“We began to kind of methodically and systematically acquire great banks in the footprint that we wanted, and fortunate for us, one of those was Palmetto Bank,” Harton said.

United Community merged with Palmetto Bank in 2015, extending the company’s footprint into Greenville and Upstate South Carolina. At the time, Greenville-based Palmetto Bank operated 25 branches across the Upstate. Harton said the acquisition of Palmetto Bank was a springboard to the United Community’s eventual headquarters move to Greenville.

Moving headquarters

United Community broke ground on its new headquarters in downtown Greenville in March 2022. The million facility took approximately two years to construct.

“When I joined the company, one of the board members, in particular one of the major owners, told me, ‘Ultimately, we’re going to need to move the headquarters,’” Harton explained. “I said, ‘Was there any chance it could be Greenville?’”

Over the years, United Community continued to hire more employees in Greenville and the Upstate. Michelle Seaver, president of United Community for Greenville, Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, said Greenville has been a great place to recruit new talent.

“As different members of leadership transitioned, meaning that they retired or moved on to another opportunity, we were replacing talent here in Greenville,” Seaver said. “Instead of hiring them in Blairsville, we hired them here.”

United Community officially announced plans to relocate its headquarters from Blairsville to Greenville in 2021. At the time, employees based in Greenville were spread across four downtown buildings. The company decided to build a new headquarters to bring everyone under one roof.

A groundbreaking for the $65 million headquarters was held in 2022. The 200,000-square-foot building took approximately two years to build and opened in March 2024. The United Center is located at 200 E. Camperdown Way, overlooking the Reedy River next to the Grand Bohemian Lodge.

“It’s been so great to be in this building and for us all to be together,” Seaver said. “United Community is definitely an at-work company. We believe in the synergies that come about from being together.”

Ongoing impact

Photo by Kris Decker of Firewater Photography

Harton said United Community strives to build communities through its financial services, client network and employees. The bank has over 3,000 employees, with 700 in South Carolina.

“People want to work in a place where they feel like they can make an impact and that impact is noticed,” Harton said.

United Community established a foundation in 2020 to give back to non-profit organizations within the communities the bank serves. The bank took $2 million from the Paycheck Protection Program fees received during the COVID-19 pandemic to start the foundation.

The bank’s employees submit a grant request to the foundation on behalf of the organization they are involved with. Harton said he always wanted to create a foundation that could amplify the work of the employees. In 2024, the foundation awarded $763,265 to 210 organizations across the bank’s six-state footprint.

United Community’s leadership team is looking at strategies to accelerate the bank’s growth over the next several years. Harton explained the bank wants to go deeper into the economic footprint it is in, instead of expanding beyond the Southeast.

“We’re really working on dramatically accelerating our hiring growth,” Harton said. “We think that organic growth will be more prominent in the future rather than (mergers and acquisitions growth) and that’s a good thing. I just want to see people here continue to grow and have opportunities.”

United Community Timeline

United Community CEO Lynn Harton along with the company’s executive team and board of directors rang the New York Stock Exchange opening bell on Aug. 15.

1950 — Union County Bank was founded in Blairsville, Georgia

1984 — Future CEO Jimmy Tallent joins the bank

2002 — United Community Bank went public on NASDAQ with $5 billion in assets

2008 — The bank weathered the financial crisis of the Great Recession

2012 — Lynn Harton recruited as chief operating officer. He succeeded Tallent as CEO in May 2019.

2019 — The bank helped 12,000 customers with $1.3 billion Paycheck Protection Program loans

2020 — United Community Bank Foundation was established

2021 — The bank announced plans to move its headquarters to Greenville

2022 — A groundbreaking was held for the bank’s $65 million downtown headquarters

2023 — The bank unveiled a modernized brand, changing its name to United Community

2024 — The bank’s new headquarters opens. United Community Banks Inc. was also listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Acquisitions and mergers

Photo by Ryan Gilchrest. United Community Bank headquarters, Greenville, S.C.

United Community’s leadership team has completed strategic mergers and acquisitions over the past decade to expand its economic footprint in the Southeast. The acquired banks by state include:

South Carolina