Costa Mesa-based Pacific Premier Bancorp is moving its headquarters to a bigger location in Irvine, following an expansion of its workforce that’s expected to continue.
The move to Irvine Concourse is set for late November.
Pacific Premier has boosted its workforce during the past 18 months, with many new employees arriving via the bank’s recent acquisitions.
The new space will cover a total of 44,660 square feet on two floors of the complex’s Oracle Tower. That compares to the roughly 25,000 square feet the bank occupies at its present headquarters.
Pacific Premier now has 174 employees in Orange County, up from about 100 people at the beginning of last year. It’s continuing to add people to its Small Business Administration department, as well as to its warehouse-lending and business-banking groups.
“The new space will give us the room to accommodate additional employees,” Chief Executive Steven Gardner said. “We’re taking two floors in that building. It’s more space than what we have right now. [It] provides us a higher profile than our current location and will significantly improve the working environment from a space-utilization and functionality standpoint for our employees.”
Pacific Premier, the fourth-largest bank based in OC, has seen its assets grow in part through acquisitions, which have helped the bank’s assets top $1 billion as of the end of the second quarter, after a 12% increase from a year earlier.
Its latest report showed total assets of $1.07 billion, close behind Pacific Mercantile Bancorp in Costa Mesa, which had $1.08 billion in assets at the same time.
• Headquarters: Costa Mesa
• Business: Banking
• Founded: 1983
• Ticker symbol: PPBI (Nasdaq)
• Fiscal 2012 revenue: $56.7 million
• Recent earnings: $5.8 million for the June quarter
• Market value: About $95 million
• Notable: Expanding into new Irvine headquarters
Palm Desert Deal
Pacific Premier bought Palm Desert-based Palm Desert National Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in April in a deal that added $130 million in assets. Palm Desert National was the first FDIC-insured bank in California to fail this year.
Pacific Premier also acquired Palm Springs-based Canyon National Bank from the FDIC in 2011 and got $220 million in assets.
Its deposits also have grown year over year, reaching $913.2 million in a 12% increase.
Gardner said the bank is open to more deal-making in an economic environment where banks have increasingly opted to consolidate in order to stay alive or improve profitability.
“Acquisitions are very much a part of our growth strategy,” Gardner said and cited slow growth of the overall economy and tighter banking regulations as key factors that push for more mergers and acquisitions.
“We are in regular contact with other institutions throughout Southern California discussing how they might partner with a larger, more profitable bank,” he added. “We are a disciplined acquirer and will remain as such as we analyze and consider each institution.”
