First Western plants flag in Broomfield with Sandoval hire

BROOMFIELD — Bonifacio Sandoval, First National Bank’s longtime Boulder and Broomfield market manager, has made the jump to First Western Trust Bank where he will build the institution’s new Broomfield business.

Sandoval, who started his new gig as Broomfield market president this month, said First Western’s commitment to supporting new and growing businesses makes it the perfect fit for the startup dense, entrepreneurial Broomfield region.

“I very much appreciate that First Western was founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and even more specifically for Western entrepreneurs,” he said. “Business people in the West tend to have different needs than those in more traditional wealth centers on the East Coast. So banks catering to entrepreneurs has been a niche that historically hasn’t been served well in the West.”

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Across Broomfield, Louisville and Lafayette, “there are a significant number of businesses that fit the profile of organizations that First Western excels at partnering with.” 

First Western marketing director Theodore Gerbick told BizWest that “the characteristics of the Broomfield market make sense for us and [Sandoval], with his track record and ability to build a team with a client-first mindset, makes him the perfect fit to lead our Broomfield team.”

First Western, a subsidiary of First Western Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: MYFW), is headquartered in Denver and has offices throughout the Front Range including in Fort Collins and Boulder. The institution also operates in Wyoming, California and Arizona.

Sandoval’s hiring marks First Western’s newly emphasized effort to build its banking business in the Broomfield market.

In fact, the bank doesn’t yet have a physical presence in Broomfield County or eastern Boulder County. One of Sandoval’s first major tasks will be finding and establishing a new branch in the area. 

“You have to identify a space, then you have to submit applications to [banking regulators] and that can take time,” he said. Sandoval plans to start the property search in January and hopes to have a new branch established in 2020. That new branch will likely be in close proximity to U.S. Highway 36.

The new branch is expected to start with three bankers including Sandoval. One of the other two bankers has been identified, Sandoval said, and First Western is in the process of recruiting the other. 

“We’re going to manage the expansion of staff based on revenue we can generate,” Sandoval said. 

Eventually, the new branch could support as many as a half-dozen or so bankers.

Sandoval “is going to do his thing and connect with people in the area to find bankers who really understand the business and the region,” Gerbick said. 

The Broomfield expansion is unlikely to be the last for First Western.

“It is a little too soon to let the cat out of the bag” to specify what new areas the bank may consider setting up shop, Gerbick said. “But we are definitely looking for new opportunities in each of our markets.”