BCB Bancorp, Inc. Announces Sale and Leaseback of Corporate Offices

BAYONNE, N.J., Sept. 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BCB Bancorp, Inc. (the “Company”), (NASDAQ: BCBP), the holding company for BCB Community Bank (the “Bank”), today announced that the Bank completed the sale and leaseback of its corporate offices to a local investor group. The sale transaction consists of one city-block of property, located at 591-611 Avenue C in Bayonne, New Jersey, which includes the Company’s executive offices, a parking lot, and a bank branch (“the Property”). The Company anticipates to realize a pre-tax gain of approximately $4.4 million on the sale.

In the lease transaction, the Bank will lease back the property for an initial term of seven years and will have four optional terms of five years each. The base annual rent will be $450,000, subject to annual rent increases of 2.5%. We expect to be able to offset a substantial portion of this rental expense with the elimination of depreciation expense on the property.

About BCB Bancorp, Inc.

Established in 2000 and headquartered in Bayonne, N.J., BCB Community Bank is the wholly-owned subsidiary of BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCBP). The Bank has 31 branch offices in Bayonne, Carteret, Colonia, Edison, Hoboken, Fairfield, Holmdel, Jersey City, Lodi, Lyndhurst, Maplewood, Monroe Township, Newark, Parsippany, Plainsboro, River Edge, Rutherford, South Orange, Union, and Woodbridge, New Jersey, and three branches in Hicksville and Staten Island, New York. The Bank provides businesses and individuals a wide range of loans, deposit products, and retail and commercial banking services. For more information, please go to www.bcb.bank.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release, like many written and oral communications presented by BCB Bancorp, Inc., and our authorized officers, may contain certain forward-looking statements regarding our prospective performance and strategies within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are including this statement for purposes of said safe harbor provisions. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe future plans, strategies, and expectations of the Company, are generally identified by use of words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “project,” “seek,” “strive,” “try,” or future or conditional verbs such as “could,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or similar expressions. Our ability to predict results or the actual effects of our plans or strategies is inherently uncertain. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from anticipated results.

In addition to factors previously disclosed in the Company’s reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and those identified elsewhere in this release, the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements or historical performance: changes in asset quality and credit risk; the inability to sustain revenue and earnings growth; changes in interest rates and capital markets; inflation; customer acceptance of the Bank’s products and services; customer borrowing, repayment, investment and deposit practices; customer disintermediation; the introduction, withdrawal, success and timing of business initiatives; competitive conditions; the inability to realize cost savings or revenues or to implement integration plans and other consequences associated with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; economic conditions; and the impact, extent and timing of technological changes, capital management activities, and actions of governmental agencies and legislative and regulatory actions and reforms.

As the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related adverse local and national economic consequences, the Company could be subject to any of the following additional risks, any of which could have a material, adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations:

demand for our products and services may decline, making it difficult to grow assets and income;

if the economy is unable to substantially reopen, and high levels of unemployment continue for an extended period of time, loan delinquencies, problem assets, and foreclosures may increase, resulting in increased charges and reduced income;

collateral for loans, especially real estate, may decline in value, which could cause loan losses to increase;

our allowance for loan losses may have to be increased if borrowers experience financial difficulties beyond forbearance periods, which will adversely affect our net income;

the net worth and liquidity of loan guarantors may decline, impairing their ability to honor commitments to us;

as the result of the decline in the Federal Reserve Board’s target federal funds rate to near 0%, the yield on our assets may decline to a greater extent than the decline in our cost of interest-bearing liabilities, reducing our net interest margin and spread and reducing net income;

a material decrease in net income over several quarters could result in a decrease in the rate of our quarterly cash dividend;

our cyber security risks are increased as the result of an increase in the number of employees working remotely;

we rely on third party vendors for certain services and the unavailability of a critical service due to the COVID-19 outbreak could have an adverse effect on us; and

FDIC premiums may increase if the agency experiences additional resolution costs.

Annualized, pro forma, projected and estimated numbers are used for illustrative purpose only, are not forecasts and may not reflect actual results.