Thanks, Jeff. I'll start first with loan quality comments. Nonaccrual originated loans increased $3.7 million from the prior quarter. The increase in nonaccrual originated loans was due to an addition of $4.4 million in new nonaccrual loans, partially offset by $629,000 of net principal reductions and $88,000 in transfers to other real estate owned.
The increase is due substantially to 1 residential construction borrower relationship in the amount of $4.2 million that was downgraded during the quarter ended March 31,2014. We are confident with this legacy relationship that goes back many years, there will be little to no loss exposure with this relationship.
OREO decreased $275,000 during Q1 to $4.3 million. The decrease was due primarily to the disposition of 2 properties totaling $520,000, which sold for a small gain, partially offset by the addition of 2 properties totaling $218,000.
The ratio of the allowance for loan loss to non-performing originated loans decreased to 199% from 329% at the prior quarter end. Even though our overall allowance of originated loans has been decreasing, we still maintain a very healthy allowance at 1.76% to originated loans.
Some comments on capital management. We have continued our $0.08 quarterly cash dividend. However, during Q1, we declared an additional dividend in March or it was -- let me back up here. We changed the timing of our first quarter dividend, where we would typically declare in April, we declared it in March as a result of the anticipated merger with Washington Banking.
As a result of the pending Washington Banking Company merger, it is not likely we'll engage in any special dividends or stock buybacks until we reassess our capital strategies some time after merger closing.
As a reminder, when we announced the proposed merger, we indicated our pro forma TCE was estimated to be above 9% following closing.
Our focus for the remainder of 2014 are several points here. We continue to see general economic improvement across the Pacific Northwest region, and we continue to believe 2014 will show improvements over 2013.
We will continue our earlier guidance on 2014 originated loan growth in the 5% to 7% growth area. Q1 annualized originated loan growth was 6.8%.
We will continue to focus on efficiency improvements. I'd like to reiterate a metric that Don shared with you earlier. Improving our adjusted non-interest expense to average asset ratio from 3.63% in Q1 2013 to 3.38% in Q1 of 2014 represents significant progress, and we are continuing to focus on improving this important metric.
As you will remember, we are concentrating on assets per employee for 2 primary reasons. This metric focuses on growth in assets while also focusing on improvement in FTE to achieve desired levels.
We improved assets per employee at Heritage from $3,707,000 at the end of 2012 to $4,448,000 as of 12/31/13 and further improved assets per employee to $4,644,000 at end of Q1.
Assets per employee at Washington Banking Company at the end of Q1 2014 was $3,834,000. And by the end of this year, we would like to see the combined company back to where Heritage Financial ended 2013 in relationship to assets per employee.
We intend to focus on increasing our SBA loan originations. And with our knowledge and support, Washington Banking Company recently hired a team of SBA lenders and support staff.
We are optimistic that we can achieve the cost saves we originally announced with the Washington Banking Company merger by the end of 2014. We also believe we can achieve growth synergies from the merger.
Additionally, we believe we're off to a very positive start to our integration efforts, and are confident we can have successful systems conversions in October.
Tomorrow, May 1, marks the official and legal merger of Heritage Financial Corporation and Washington Banking Company, and we're truly excited about the opportunities of the go forward combined company.
That completes our comments and I would welcome any questions you may have and would once again refer to our forward-looking statements in our press release as we answer any of these questions dealing with forward-looking comments. So Ryan, if you'd please open the call for questions, we'd be happy to take some.