Berkshire Bank plans to acquire the business model, expertise and certain other assets of Needham’s Greenpark Mortgage Corp.

The Pittsfield-based bank signed an asset purchase agreement under which Berkshire will employ Greenpark’s entire mortgage team along with its two founders Paul Gershkowitz and Patty O’Meara.

Greenpark, a residential mortgage origination firm since 2001, is the exclusively endorsed home mortgage company of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Greenpark also operates offices in Quincy, Cambridge, Methuen, Tewksbury, Andover and Westborough. The company’s mortgage professionals are licensed in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Mississippi, in addition to Massachusetts.

"We are pleased to welcome the Greenpark team to America’s Most Exciting Bank. This partnership will allow us to enhance our retail lending reach and capabilities into central and eastern Massachusetts, an area into which we have been looking to expand," said Michael P. Daly, Berkshire’s president and chief executive officer. "We look forward to carrying on the practices, processes and customer service of Greenpark Mortgage, which have made them so successful and which complement well our culture of community mortgage lending. Paul and Patty have built a solid franchise and have developed a book of quality relationships with their customers that we plan to build upon. This partnership also aligns nicely with our newly established commercial banking team, which is based in Westborough, Massachusetts."

Both Gershkowitz and O’Meara will join Berkshire Bank as first vice presidents and will continue to operate their successful business model along with their mortgage team. Greenpark will operate as a division of Berkshire Bank. The transaction is expected to be complete toward the end of the first quarter 2012.