If you strolled down Jamaica Plain’s Centre Street this weekend, you may have noticed a slight change of scenery. No, the snow isn’t gone yet. But the former People’s Federal bank branch sported spiffy blue signage bearing its new name: Rockland Trust.

"It’s a very significant milestone in the history of Rockland Trust, to open up our first retail office in Boston in four neighborhoods," President and CEO Christopher Oddleifson told Banker & Tradesman recently.

The People’s Federal purchase, which officially closed this weekend, is a big deal for Rockland Trust. The bank has been doing business in Boston for at least 20 years, he said, and while Rockland Trust opened up a commercial lending and wealth management office on Arch Street a few years ago, it has never had a retail presence inside the city.

The freshly inked deal with Peoples now gives Rockland Trust a solid retail presence in Boston – in Allston, Brighton, Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury – and Oddleifson said the bank will look toward opening another retail location somewhere inside the city limits as its next move.

Asked what neighborhoods Rockland Trust might consider next, he declined to name names just yet.

Although Rockland Trust has been an aggressive acquirer in recent years, Oddleifson said that with this latest deal, the bank will focus mainly on organic growth within the city of Boston.

"We have always thought it important to have a very good organic growth strategy because we really couldn’t depend on acquisitions," he said.

Simply put, there just aren’t that many banks around to buy – and the majority of banks in Massachusetts are mutual banks, too.

"The big banks did a good job buying a lot of banks in the early 2000s," Oddleifson said. "You can’t depend on acquisitions as your fuel for growth."

And while Boston is rich with banks, Oddleifson thinks there’s still plenty of room for a bank like Rockland Trust.

"We really know the markets well. We’re a Massachusetts-based bank, so we have all our skin in the game," he said. "We have a lot of engagement with the community and an intimacy with the market combined with the capabilities of a sizable bank."

Oddleifson is sure now that retail customers will appreciate the bank’s suite of mobile banking, tablet banking and remote deposit capture products, and he expressed confidence in the addition of Jim Gavin. Formerly Peoples’ chief lending officer, Gavin now holds the title of senior vice president of commercial lending at Rockland Trust, and with that comes a larger staff to help grow the bank’s market at a faster rate than he could alone.

The Peoples Federal deal puts Independent Bank Corp’s assets around $7 billion – and within spitting distance of the $10 billion threshold that would open the bank up to increased regulatory scrutiny. Conscious of that, Oddleifson said the bank has added more staff in its compliance, internal audit and BSA functions.

"I look at $10 billion not as a threshold but as a gradual incline. As we get closer and closer we need to build capabilities so when we arrive, we’ll be ready for all the increased scrutiny," he said. "My sense is that’s the regulators’ view, too. They expect you to get better and better as you move towards that mark."