Chemical Financial relocates HQ to Detroit from Midland

Chemical Financial relocates HQ to Detroit from Midland
A rendering shows a proposed 20-story tower in Detroit where Chemical Bank plans to move its corporate headquarters and hire 500 people.

MIDLAND — Chemical Financial Corp. today relocated its corporate headquarters to Detroit.

The move comes less than two years after Midland-based Chemical Financial and the former Troy-based Talmer Bancorp. merged in a $1.1 billion deal that created the largest bank based in Michigan.

Chemical Financial had been headquartered in Midland since its founding in 1917. The corporation plans to maintain its Midland workforce of more than 500 people and build a new 20-story headquarters in downtown Detroit that will employ an additional 500 people. For now, the headquarters is based at a bank office in downtown Detroit.

“We are honored to be in a position to bring a bank headquarters back to the city of Detroit and become Detroit’s hometown bank,” said Gary Torgow, chairman of Chemical Financial who held the same position at Talmer Bancorp.

Chemical Financial announced the move today after the City of Detroit said named the institution its primary bank for managing operating deposit accounts, which could generate deposit balances of up to $500 million.

“Detroit is the financial hub for advanced manufacturing and mobility as well as a growing nexus for young entrepreneurs looking to leverage the city’s rich history of innovation and hard work, and Chemical Bank is excited to help them build our economy and invest in Michigan’s future,” President and CEO Thomas Shafer said in a statement. “With our legacy markets as our foundation, Chemical Bank’s continued expansion into the Detroit market establishes us as a leading financial institution in the Midwest.”

Directors at Chemical Financial approved the relocation Tuesday. The change of address for the headquarters became effective today, according to federal filings.

Chemical Bank has 212 banking offices in Michigan, northeast Ohio and northern Indiana with $20.2 billion in total assets.

On Tuesday, Chemical Financial reported net income of $68.9 million, or 96 cents per diluted share, for the second quarter. That compares to $57 million, or 73 cents per diluted share, in the same period a year earlier.