There’s more than one way to try to cash in on the San Diego banking renaissance. Several of the new community banks were formed from the leadership of bought out local banks. An out of town bank could open a branch to target a specific market, as in San Francisco-based First Republic’s move into La Jolla.

Or a holding company with a successful track record and deep pockets elsewhere can plant its flag in San Diego. This is the route taken by Sunrise Bank of San Diego, which has raced to nearly $60 million in assets and a return on assets approaching 1 percent in less than three years of operation.

Sunrise is an affiliate of Capitol Bancorp Ltd., a holding company with headquarters in Lansing, Mich., and Phoenix. Capitol Bancorp has 29 affiliates located in Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico and California. At June 30, the holding company had assets of more than $2.6 billion, and second quarter profit of about $5.7 million, or 45 cents a share.

Sunrise first appeared on the local scene in January of 2001. President Randy Cundiff was recruited by a headhunter from the local Money Store, which was purchased by First Union Bank in 1999.

Cundiff and local investors raised about 49 percent of the original $8 million stake, and Capitol Bancorp pitched in the rest. Sunrise CEO John Lewis is based in Arizona, where he oversees roughly 16 regional banks for the holding company. Lewis, whose son attends the University of San Diego, acts as chief adviser to Sunrise.

“The holding company offers us the best of both worlds because it provides us with administrative support, compliance and cash flow analysis,” Cundiff says. “They allow us to form a local board; there are two directors from the holding company. All credit decisions are made on a local basis. They pretty much give us the keys to the sports car and as long as we’re not off target, they stay out of our hair.”

Bolstered by its big brother holding company, Cundiff says Sunrise has nearly earned back the original $8 million and is under less pressure to make loans than its de novo competitors.

“We’ve chosen to grow a little slower and we’ve driven the bottom line,” he says. “I’ve seen credits that other lenders are doing now that are crazy from a pricing and credit standpoint. We’re clean; we have no non-performing loans. I’ve worked with (Chief Credit Officer) Suzanne Gregory since ’94, we’re on the same page as far as the credit culture and we’re staying that course.”