Pinnacle Financial Partners Opens New Memphis Office in Midtown

Union Avenue office marks the firm’s westward push toward downtown

Pinnacle Financial Partners’ growth in Memphis reached a milestone with the opening of its newest local office. The firm’s outpost on Union Avenue in Midtown has begun serving clients with a team of five financial professionals who have more than a century of experience between them.

See inside the Union Avenue office.

“This is the next step in Pinnacle’s Memphis story,” said Kirk Bailey, Pinnacle’s Memphis chairman. “We have a team of local leaders and bankers who have spent the last year expanding our reach into new communities. Now we’re joining the momentum on Union Avenue, an area that’s already growing and robust but has even more potential for the future. Midtown and downtown have bright days ahead, and Pinnacle is ready to be part of it.”

The Union Avenue office is Pinnacle’s sixth full-service location in the Midsouth, with another five loan production offices in the area, and its closest to downtown and the urban center. It is designed to serve the full range of business and personal needs and features an ATM and two drive-thru lanes. It also includes Pinnacle’s signature feature, a Learning Center with full audio-visual capabilities. This is a space dedicated to financial education events for clients and neighbors and is also open for community use.

Three new Pinnacle associates are among the team opening Union Avenue. Amber Puryear, Amber Lias and Lorraine Norman have all joined the firm’s client services team.

“The team we’ve put together for Union Avenue is filled with experience and expertise that will serve the neighborhood,” said Lisa Foley, Pinnacle’s area manager for client services in Memphis. “We pride ourselves on being able to attract the best banking talent in Memphis, and this team certainly represents that.”

Puryear, with 12 years of financial services experience, is a senior vice president and office leader. She comes to Pinnacle from Iberibank, where she most recently was a business development officer.

Puryear earned her bachelor’s degree from Arkansas State University. She is the event coordinator for the BNI Chapter of Lakeland Profit Builders and serves on the board of managers for the Bon Lin Middle School PTO. Puryear is a member of SoundCheck through the Greater Memphis Chamber and is an embark alumni for the New Memphis Institute. She is a past ambassador of the Bartlett Chamber of Commerce.

Lias brings 11 years of experience to her role of client service advisor. She most recently was the financial center manager for First Tennessee Bank. Previously she held branch manager roles with Regions Bank and Metropolitan National Bank in Little Rock, AR.

Lias earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Memphis. She has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement, I Am New Memphis, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Humane Society, St. Jude and Shelby County Schools.

Norman brings a 22-year career from First Tennessee Bank to her role of financial specialist. She was most recently the operations manager for First Tennessee. Norman attended the University of Memphis. 

Joining these three are long-time Pinnacle financial specialists Lillie Hatton and Shirley Alexander-Johnson, who are moving to Union Avenue with more than 20 years and 40 years of experience, respectively.

Hastings Architecture designed the Union Avenue office, which includes light blond woods, modern metal and glass fixtures and abundant natural light, with Linkous Construction as general contractor. It spans 4,190 square feet.

In 2018, Pinnacle opened a new main office in Memphis on Shady Grove Road, two loan production offices in Whitehaven and Raleigh, and mortgage offices in Atoka and Southaven, MS. In 2017, Pinnacle cut the ribbon on a shared office space with Starbucks in Germantown.

Pinnacle Financial Partners provides a full range of banking, investment, trust, mortgage and insurance products and services designed for businesses and their owners and individuals interested in a comprehensive relationship with their financial institution. Pinnacle earned a spot on FORTUNE’s 2019 list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For^® in the U.S., its third consecutive appearance. American Banker recognized Pinnacle as one of America’s Best Banks to Work For six years in a row.

Pinnacle has served Memphis since 2015 when it acquired Magna Bank. Since then Pinnacle has become the official bank of the Memphis Grizzlies and FedExForum and was named a “Top 10 Company to Watch in 2017” by the Greater Memphis Chamber. Pinnacle was named No. 1 “Best Place to Work” by the Memphis Business Journal in three of the last four years. 

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $25.6 billion in assets as of March 31, 2019. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 11 primarily urban markets in Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia.

Additional information concerning Pinnacle, which is included in the Nasdaq Financial-100 Index, can be accessed at www.pnfp.com.