Professional Profile: Robert Britton - 1983

Name: Robert Britton - 1983

Title: Vice President, corporate real estate department

Company: Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank

Location: Providence

Birthplace: December 21, 1933 in Greenfield, Mass.

Robert Britton 1983 Robert H. Britton was born on December 21, 1933 in Greenfield, Mass. He earned a B.S. at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., graduating in 1957. Following graduation, Bob became a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He served for three years in Tachikawa, Japan and Chandler, Arizona. In 1959 Bob became a biology instructor at Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Mass. He was also varsity football line coach and athletic trainer at Deerfield. The following year he was a licensed insurance broker for Connecticut General Life Insurance Company in Hartsdale, New York. Bob joined Dorman & Wilson, Inc., a mortgage banking company, in White Plains, N.Y. in 1961. Bob was a mortgage loan correspondent for life insurance companies such as Aetna, GIGNA, Connecticut Mutual, Fidelity Mutual, Hartford and Metropolitan. He was elected vice president in 1966. From 1976 to 1977 Bob was vice president in the loan area of the Lincoln First Real Estate Finance Department in White Plains, N.Y. Bob’s responsibilities included the origination of construction and interim loans for the firm, which is a subsidiary of Lincoln First Bank, N.A. of Rochester, N.Y. In 1977 Bob incorporated and became president of the Greenwich Mortgage Coin in Greenwich, Conn. Greenwich Mortgage Co. was a full line commercial brokerage firm that specialized in the arrangement of construction and permanent commercial mortgage loans. In addition, Greenwich Mortgage provided nationwide service in the appraisal, sale and leasing of commercial properties. Bob is proud of the fact that he made his largest loan ever when he was running Greenwich Mortgage; a $43.5 million loan with Prudential. In 1982, a lack of demand precipitated by the high interest rates hurt the business. The unfavorable business conditions combined with Bob’s desire to return to Rhode Island, led to the decision to close Greenwich Mortgage. Bob then joined the Corporate Real Estate Department of Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank in Providence. As vice president for the Corporate Real Estate Department, Bob is responsible for the origination, negotiation, and appraisal of commercial construction loans. Hospital Trust, which principally lends in New England in the $1 million one to $5 million range, intends to double production to $100 million next year. Hospital Trust plans to add to the staff; Bob will be in charge of hiring. Rhode Island Hospital Trust has traditionally not been a real estate bank, but they are changing that now. Bob is responsible for the conversion from a non-real estate to a real estate bank. Hospital Trust is primarily involved in financing condominiums, but they are also heavily involved in several projects around Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut. Over the next two years Bob sees Hospital Trust’s primary areas of expansion to be the Route 495 corridor into Southern New Hampshire, the area between Hartford to Springfield, and Fairfield County. Bob is currently featured in a full-page ad for Hospital Trust which has run in the New England Real Estate Journal and the Providence Journal. He has been building himself a house in Westerly, R.I. for some time now and enjoys the beach, surf-casting, and skiing. He’s also a gourmet cook and an avid New England Patriots fan. His oldest son, Mark, is in the construction business in Westchester County, New York while his youngest son, Jeff, is a sophomore at Washington and Lee University, where he recently earned a full R.O.T.C. scholarship. Jeff was fortunate to have spent his last spring semester at Kan-Sai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan. As a result of this, Bob and his wife, Betty, are now the “home-stay parents” for Noriko Chikusa of Kobe, Japan, who is spending her junior year at Providence College.