Riverside Bank of Dublin will become NexTier Bank by late September, ending a five-year run for the homegrown lender that opened during the pandemic.

The legal merger between NexTier, Inc. and Riverside closed Aug. 31, according to a NexTier press release. The rebranding is expected within weeks, Columbus Business First reported, with a systems conversion to follow in November.

Both Dublin locations will stay open. The original branch at Metro Place North and the newer Bridge Park office at 4548 Bridge Park Ave., which opened in June, will operate under the NexTier name.

Travis Sanders, who founded Riverside and served as its president, will stay on as NexTier's Columbus regional president. NexTier President and CEO Clem Rosenberger said in a statement that the bank would bring additional products to the Columbus region, including treasury management for small businesses and construction mortgages.

The deal marks NexTier's first acquisition outside Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported. The Butler, Pennsylvania-based bank, established in 1897, now reports approximately $3.2 billion in assets, $2.5 billion in total loans and $2.8 billion in total deposits. It operates 34 offices across Western Pennsylvania, Western New York and Central Ohio.

For Dublin borrowers, the merger carries a practical upside. Riverside's single-borrower lending limit had been $3 million, and its largest deal to date was $9 million, which required splitting the loan with bigger banks. Under NexTier, that limit jumps to $20 million, according to Dublin Ohio Daily.

Riverside opened in February 2021 in a second-floor suite at Metro Place North. It grew into one of the fastest-growing banks in Ohio, according to Dublin Ohio Daily.

NexTier has not announced a specific date for the late-September rebrand. The bank's press release describes an "operational merger" expected in November, while Columbus Business First reported a "systems conversion" on the same timeline.