From his office in the John Hancock Tower, Nicholas Lazares can see construction proceeding on Boylston Street at what will be Admirals Bank’s first Boston branch.

The storefront is already festooned with a blue, yellow and red sign, and the branch is expected to open sometime this month. The bank has scheduled a grand opening for May 16. When it does open, the Admirals branch will be the only locally owned and headquartered bank with a presence on a strip crowded with the biggest names in the industry.

But Lazares isn’t worried.

The sailing enthusiast has navigated heavy seas, and Admirals’ concept itself is part of an effort to make the most of the recent financial collapse.

Lazares, a former Lehman Bros. managing director, left the company in 2007 and set his sights on the opportunities he saw in the troubled banking market. If he could acquire troubled banks for relatively little money and run them in an opportunistic way, he said he figured could be at full sail in no time.

In 2008, Lazares told Bloomberg he planned to “start acquiring some of these distressed banks.” When other troubled banks began searching for buyers for their loans, Lazares would be there to buy them.

At the helm of his own private equity firm, Federal One Holdings LLC, Lazares bought Providence, R.I.-based Domestic Bank in 2010 and changed its name to Admirals Bank. Around the same time, he sold Capital Crossing Bank, which he had previously acquired, to Lehman Bros. for $210 million.

Based on his experiences, he said he knows what customers want when they enter his bank: Fireplaces.

Bespoke Banking

The in-branch fireplaces are part of what world-traveler Lazares calls “bespoke banking.” The term is usually associated with custom-made, European, perfectly fitted luxury clothing. But Lazares said it’s well suited to Admirals’ concept, which focuses on niche markets including commercial loan acquisitions and investment banking. It also does conventional retail banking.

The bank strives to differentiate itself by offering a slew of upscale amenities, including old-school elegance and décor in branches – think copious amounts of leather and wood – and personal bankers that arrive for house calls in a bank-owned Mercedes Benz sedan.

“It’s quite different,” Lazares told Banker & Tradesman of his plenty-of-frills approach to banking. “Fireplaces, chairs, you feel like you’re in a private home or a club. Everything in London is bespoke, so why not bespoke banking?”

According to Edvaldo Morata, Sovereign Bank’s head of corporate banking, banks within Boston’s crowded market generally do a good job of differentiating themselves, and it’s not for nothing. Customers notice the differences.

“The market is crowded, but not with people of our style,” Morata told Banker & Tradesman. “In the markets where we are present, we are a big operation. Mid-size companies need more in-depth analysis, and local flavor, that’s the best case scenario. Our local opportunity is with small- and medium-size businesses, and our main advantage here is being part of a group that is committed to expansion and being part of the local banking scene.”

An Easy Sell?

Admirals is in the midst of closing former Domestic Bank branches in Walmart stores and grocery chains, and will instead focus on bringing the “bespoke” concept to “flagship branches in select locations,” Lazares said.

Along with the fireplaces, Admirals locations will feature “more talented, and higher-quality bankers dealing with customers directly,” Lazares said.

As far as marketing strategy is concerned, the concept should be right at home on Boylston Street, home to a number of premium shopping destinations and just one block removed from Newbury Street, Boston’s version of New York’s famed Fifth Avenue shopping mecca.

And if it worked in more blue-collar Providence, it seems certain to work with the Boston Brahmins.

“In the Providence market, we rolled out the bespoke banking initiative and within two months, we had a larger amount of deposits,” Lazares said. “It’s amazing how well received it is there, and we’re getting higher-ticket deposits. We’ve already had a lot of inquiries in Boston.”

It will probably also help that Admirals already has a relationship with the Boston Ballet and other well-heeled, high-brow institutions.

Lazares recognizes that Admirals isn’t a household name and is attempting to establish itself, and as a result there may be some difficulties along the way.

But he said it shouldn’t be difficult to make the case that customers should use the only local bank on Boylston Street.