Santa Ana-based Banc of California Inc., which in March agreed to buy local rival Pacific Mercantile Bancorp in a stock transaction valued at $235 million, is planning to make a big play in Los Angeles.

The bank is looking to establish a significant corporate presence in the market, starting with new digs in Brentwood that will serve as a base to pursue more L.A. business.

“We are migrating more toward Southern California and the westside of Los Angeles versus Orange County,” said Jared Wolff, president and chief executive of Banc of California. “The bank is technically headquartered in Santa Ana, and I’ve taken office space in Brentwood, and our name is going on top of a pretty big building there.”
 
Banc of California, which has about half of its 29 branches in Los Angeles County, has leased space at a 10-story tower located at 11611 San Vicente Blvd., with its signage expected to occupy a prominent position in a few months. The space will primarily serve as corporate offices for Wolff and senior executives, with a branch on the fifth floor.

Wolff, who joined the bank in March 2019, has assembled a tightly knit team of executives, including several from his former employer, Beverly Hills-based PacWest Bancorp.

While at PacWest, Wolff was directly involved in 20 acquisitions between 2002 and 2014 in various roles, the last as president of the Pacific Western Bank unit.
 
Other executives brought into Banc of California by Wolff hail from the top ranks at Wells Fargo & Co. and MUFG Union Bank.

Another strategic hire, Alex Kweskin, formerly managing director of human resources with the $132 billion-in-asset MUFG Union Bank, plans to join Banc of California on May 3 as executive vice president and chief human resources officer.
 
“Technically, our headquarters is still where it is in Orange County. There’s a regulatory process that we’ve got to go through to move our headquarters,” said Wolff, who lives in Santa Monica and told his bank’s board of directors at the time of his hiring in May 2019 that he’d only commute for one year.

“I think our bank has not done a great job of being as present as we could on the westside (of L.A.),” Wolff said. “So, we’ve obviously been increasing our presence since I’ve gotten to the bank here, and we’ll continue to do that.”
 
Joining Wolff in shuttling between the bank’s dual headquarters in Brentwood and Santa Ana will be several senior executives, including Lynn Hopkins, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Banc of California; Jay Sanders, president of private and specialty banking (who has an office in Century City); Robert Dyck, chief credit officer; Ido Dotan, executive vice president and general counsel; Hamid Hussain, president of real estate and commercial banking; and John Sotoodeh, president of community and business banking.

Wolff worked with Dotan on M&A deals for PacWest when Wolff was at PacWest and Dotan was at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. Dotan followed Wolff to Banc of California in May 2019.

Hopkins was the chief accounting officer during Wolff’s tenure at PacWest, and later the CFO. She moved to Banc of California in May 2019.

Dyck, who was chief credit officer with PacWest during Wolff’s tenure, joined Banc of California in September 2019.