After just five months in its original Wilmington office space, Sound Bank has moved to larger quarters.

The bank’s loan production office has relocated from an executive suite at 1721 Allens Lane to leased space at 1131 Military Cutoff Road, in a building adjacent to The Forum, Mark Johnson, Sound Bank’s New Hanover County market executive said on Monday.

The building is owned by Swain & Associates, and the leasing transaction was handled by that firm, Johnson said.

There is enough space at the new location to accommodate a future full-service branch for Sound Bank, according to Johnson, who said that the bank has applied to the FDIC for permission to open a branch in the spot. If it receives approval from the regulatory agency, Sound Bank would renovate the 1,450-square-foot space to include a teller window, offices and a meeting room and would hire local staff.

“The community has really accepted us,” Johnson said. “We’re a small bank – we have $154 million total assets – and that allows us to have high client touch. We specialize in providing quality service to small businesses -- a niche that needed to be filled in this area. We are also able to make decisions quickly, which is essential to small businesses.”

Headquartered in Morehead City, Sound Bank is a community bank that opened in 2001 and now has full-service offices in Morehead City, Beaufort, Cedar Point and New Bern. It has a loan production office in Jacksonville as well as the one in Wilmington. The Wilmington office opened Jan. 5.