The story of Boston’s newest bank reads like a crime caper, a tale of redeemed hopes and a slick corporate coup. And Portugal is also thrown in, for good measure.

Soon-to-be Admirals Bank – currently known as Domestic Bank – has a troubled past. And under its new ownership, it will also have a split personality.

Admirals, which expects to relocate from Rhode Island to Massachusetts this month, is a community-focused retail institution, catering to a largely Latino and Portuguese customer base straddling both states. But it’s also launching a nationwide commercial real estate acquisitions business, reuniting personnel from Boston wholesaler Capital Crossing, which was sold to Lehman Bros. in 2007.

New CEO Nicolas Lazares, formerly the head of Capital Crossing, says Admirals’ combination of commercial real estate dealing and strong retail banking will help the institution weather any economic climate.

The community bank is moving forward quickly, buying new branches and preparing to move its headquarters to the John Hancock Tower. The “Admirals” name was adopted to reflect the change in leadership and new beginning.

Complementary Strategy

Behind Admirals’ unusual strategy are two bankers with local roots –Lazares and senior vice president Pedro Arce, who fought for years in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to found a new bank in Lawrence.

Lazares’ group bought Domestic in May. Based in Cranston, R.I., the $265 million bank has nine branches in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts – all in Wal-Marts and supermarkets, according to the FDIC.

Domestic has a tumultuous history. In 2008, it paid $1.8 million to the Office of Thrift Supervision after the regulator found Domestic’s mortgage subsidiary engaging in wildly risky lending practices.

This year, fraudsters skimmed $8 million from some of Domestic’s ATMs. Lazares said the diligence of his investors caught discrepancies in the ATM network early, allowing him to avoid purchasing those ATMs when he bought the bank. Currently, the bank only has ATMs at its existing branches.

After the purchase, leadership liquidated some non-earning assets and saw deposits rise. Lazares said the bank had $240 million in assets in May. Thanks to new capital, he said, it now has $340 million. The FDIC won’t release verifiable third-quarter numbers until later this month.

Lazares’ plan is to re-assemble some of his Capital Crossing team and buy good assets from troubled institutions. In this environment, banks nationwide are seeking to shed assets and re-align their balance sheets – something Admirals hopes to take advantage of, Lazares said.

Admirals’ strategy dictates that the two sides complement each other. Community banks must always deploy their assets productively, and Admirals will use its growing deposit base on commercial mortgage acquisitions. That will lead to higher profitability than a typical bank, according to Lazares.

But mortgage acquisitions are an inconsistent business. Lazares said the retail side of the bank will provide a stabilizing force.

“This time around, we wanted to be sustainable through various cycles,” he said.

Analysts said Capital Crossing did alright its first time around, doing brisk business buying troubled and undervalued real estate assets and turning a profit on them.

“They were very good at that. Every other banker I knew would scratch their head and say, ‘I don’t know how they’re doing that,’” recalled Suzanne Moot, owner of Milton-based consultancy M&M Consulting. Yields were good until shortly before the commercial bank was sold in 2007.

Capital Crossing never had a retail presence. But the formation of Admirals allows one hand to facilitate real estate deals in Boston and New York City, while traditional retail branches dot Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts.

Admirals is awaiting regulatory approval to add to Domestic’s existing branch network by acquiring four Massachusetts branches of Millennium bcpbank, a Portugal-based institution. The company abruptly sold its U.S. holdings in September to a New Jersey bank, creating an opportunity for Admirals to add a large number of Portuguese and Brazilian customers to the bank’s current base, about half of whom are Latino.

Effective, Not Flashy

And that’s where Arce comes in.

Arce had attempted to found Veritas Bank, which would have catered specifically to Lawrence’s Latino population. But the 2008 credit crisis seriously impeded his plans. Arce’s subsequent, successful efforts to line up new investors weren’t enough to convince a hard-nosed FDIC to approve his revamped application in 2009.

The experience was disappointing, but through a chance meeting with Lazares, Arce found a new venue.

Cranston is similar to Lawrence – both have large immigrant, under-banked populations, Arce said. Arce’s goal is to help those communities in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts by helping them create a banking relationship, partly by offering services including overseas wire transfers and pre-paid debit cards.

The Millennium branches – in Ludlow, Fall River and New Bedford – will give Portuguese-speaking customers access to the same basic products.

Serving the under-banked isn’t a flashy plan, Arce said, but it can be effective.

“It’s not meant to widen your margins by a great deal, but meant to make a big impact in a community and gradually grow a client base,” he said. “[Collaborating with Lazares] was actually pretty ideal, to be honest.”

Lazares said Arce has been a major asset as Admirals gets off the ground, particularly his contacts with micro-lender Accion USA, which aims to work with Admirals’ offices and lend to small businesses in the community.

“The concepts Pedro had developed are transferable, obviously,” Lazares said.

Analysts found Admirals’ plan eye-catching, to say the least.

Terry Kaufman, president of Rockhouse Capital in Greenwich, Conn., said it isn’t a given that troubled institutions would be selling assets at fire-sale prices. The field is crowded with buyers right now, and many of the assets themselves are distressed. But he suggested that if Lazares has been successful before, he might pull it off again.

“The question [with real estate] is, can you get in and get out fast enough?” Kaufman asked. “[Lazares] might be one of the guys who can.”

Moot, who followed Capital Crossings, said Admirals’ plan was unique.

“This is very peculiar. This is unusual in the Capital Crossing asset-generation strategy, and unusual platform to build it on.”