Organizers for the region’s newest community bank, Coronado 1st Bank, raised at least $12 million in a stock offering in advance of a planned opening Sept. 26.
A funding campaign launched in June required only two meetings before the bank obtained the necessary capital, said Chief Executive Officer Bruce Ives.
“After two meetings, we were fully subscribed,” Ives said of the funding campaign that attracted nearly 300 individual investors who purchased $10 shares.
Additional capital may be raised by the time the offering is completed on Sept. 1. “It’ll be between $12 million but under $15 million,” he said.
Coronado 1st Bank will have its office at a new building in the final stages of construction at 801 Orange Ave.
Coronado 1st becomes the first new bank to be formed in the county since the opening of Point Loma Community Bank about a year ago. Since 2000, 15 community banks have been launched in the county.
Joining Ives as a key founder of the bank is longtime Coronado finance executive Tom Stickel, who is the bank’s chairman. Other prominent directors include Stickel’s friend and former San Diego State University roommate Jerry Sanders, the former San Diego police chief who is running for mayor; Rudy Castruita, the superintendent for the San Diego County Office of Education; and Larry Kurmel, former executive director of the California Bankers Association and director at Fremont Bank.
Stickel is a former banker who founded a San Diego diversified financial holding company that had interests in real estate, insurance and publishing called TCS Enterprises. Most recently he was chairman of a finance company that specialized in lending to auto dealers, Onyx Acceptance Corp., which was acquired last year by Capital One Auto Finance Corp. He is also a major player in the Republican Party.
Ives, 40, who is also on the board, is a former chief executive of Cuyamaca Bank, which was acquired by Escondido-based Community Bancorp in October.
Ives has some 10 employees already hired, including his top credit officers, Chief Financial Officer Paul Cable and Chief Credit Officer Bob Ayers.
Ives said Coronado 1st Bank will seek out business customers both in the city of Coronado and off the island. The city was served by the Bank of Coronado until it was acquired by First Community Bancorp, the parent firm of First National Bank, in 2001.
