California's Sunwest Bank announces headquarters move to Sandy

By Brice Wallace 

A western region business bank will move its headquarters from Irvine, California, to Sandy, adding 63 high-paying jobs in Utah.

Sunwest Bank made the announcement after being approved for a $524,523 tax credit incentive over five years by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board.

Sunwest was founded in 1969 as Santiago Commercial Bank in Tustin, California. It changed its name to Sunwest Bank in 1980. Sunwest is focused on entrepreneurs, specializing in small to medium-sized businesses, privately held corporations, family offices and real estate developers and investors.

The company is seeking approval from the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to relocate its corporate headquarters to Sandy.

Sunwest has had operations in Sandy the past six years and has financed much of the construction and real estate industry growth in the Salt Lake Valley, according to Carson Lappetito, the bank’s president. For the past two years, the company has been moving jobs out of California.

“It’s really caused us to focus on where is our back office and our executive team sit,” he told the GOED board. “And we did an analysis of the Rocky Mountain West, because that’s the broader market we’re focused on, and we found that Sandy and the Salt Lake Valley were the place to locate our middle office, a chunk of our back office and our executive team.

“So, through that process we’ve moved more jobs to Sandy, [and] a whole bunch more are coming as we embark on the next year. We’re conservative bankers, so I think our estimates and projections were pretty conservative.”

Lappetito said Sunwest is “big fans of the regulatory community” in Utah and also has found “an incredible talent base in the financial services market to pull from.”

The average wage of the new jobs is projected at $109,325. Total new wages are estimated at $26.9 million over five years, and new state tax revenue is projected to be $2.6 million during that time.

“In a state that is well-known for our entrepreneurship, we’re glad Sunwest Bank chose Utah to grow its business,” Dan Hemmert, GOED’s executive director, said in a prepared statement. “Sunwest Bank will provide many services needed for Utah entrepreneurs, and we hope Sunwest Bank will feel at home in our state.”

“The financial services industry is one of Utah’s largest in terms of number of firms and availability of talent,” said Theresa A. Foxley, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. “We’re confident that Sunwest Bank will find the ingredients to grow here quickly and efficiently.”

Nick Duerksen, Sandy’s economic development director, noted that the city is already home to several business and financial service companies and welcomed Sunwest Bank as a part of the corporate community in The Cairns District. “We’re excited to have Sunwest Bank as a corporate citizen of Sandy,” Duerksen said, “and look forward to a rewarding partnership and successful future.”