BankTown Banking & Finance News

[Blue_Devil]

50 minutes ago, atlrvr said:

I highly doubt they move their HQ to Dallas.  I do think they would use a Dallas office to move many corporate jobs out of S.F. though.

 

There is a rumor in Wells they are looking for more Office Space here too... One Wells is being vacated, and DEC is being added too, but it leaves a few 100'000 sqft gap, on top of the fact during covid 1500 jobs were added in the charlotte area, and there were already close to 700 in We Works around the city. 

Also, given Charlotte is a Compliance/Risk Hub location, and they are moving people from Cities like Atlanta (Dallas is a Hub too) into the Hubs, expect even more people here in the city once work from home ends. 

[KJHburg]

1 hour ago, atlrvr said:

I highly doubt they move their HQ to Dallas.  I do think they would use a Dallas office to move many corporate jobs out of S.F. though.

 

But why not move some of those corporate jobs if that is what they are doing to Charlotte?   BoA has been consolidating their offices all over the country I know they anchored a new building in Houston and San Antonio.    I wonder if they consolidating their Dallas and Ft Worth offices into one metroplex office?  DFW metro is over 7 million and is a big market for Wells. 

[KJHburg]

and now this article has been updated again from San Fran Biz Journal.     The buzz is loud in San Fran biz circles hopefully the buzz will land with the Hornets here in the Queen City. 

from an updated SF  Biz Journal article 

Could Wells Fargo’s ‘Project Falcon’ land bank’s headquarters in Dallas? - San Francisco Business Times (bizjournals.com)

“It would almost be an insult to the business acumen of senior Wells Fargo executives if they haven’t been contemplating this move for quite some time now,” site selection consultant John Boyd said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone." One factor coming into play is the expiration next year of a powerful economic-incentive program, Texas’ Chapter 313 property tax abatements. The program’s expiration is expected to put a damper on Texas’ long streak of winning big economic prizes, some of them at the expense of the Bay Area, such as Charles Schwab Corp. and McKesson. But for now, it appears there’s something of a land rush to take advantage of the program before it ends.    Others see Las Colinas as a strong candidate to capture Wells Fargo’s headquarters. The planned community in the Dallas suburb of Irving in fact calls itself the “headquarters of headquarters.”  “Dallas really has emerged as one of the nation’s premier financial services markets and premier fintech markets,” Boyd said.  “Las Colinas is one of the most prestigious addresses in Texas,” Boyd said. In addition to ExxonMobil, other companies based in affluent Las Colinas include Kimberly-Clark, Fluor and McKesson, which moved its headquarters from San Francisco in 2019. McKesson initially billed its Las Colinas office as a regional office in capturing millions of dollars in economic incentives.

Asked how Dallas might stack up against Charlotte as the future site of Wells Fargo’s headquarters, site selection consultants were hesitant to publicly tip one over the other.  Vranich declined to say which city Wells should choose, simply saying: “Wells Fargo is not my client, but if they were my client, I would be encouraging them to relocate their headquarters.  “I can’t say whether Dallas is better than Charlotte or better than some other place,” Vranich said. “All I know is just about any place is better than California, especially San Francisco, California.”""

MCKesson, Flour, Charles Schwab all are in the Dallas Ft Worth area and all were from the San Fran bay area.

Here is a photo of Las Colinas a huge planned community with DART rail access to downtown Dallas and just minutes via DART to DFW airport.  

[Blue_Devil]

20 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

and now this article has been updated again from San Fran Biz Journal.     The buzz is loud in San Fran biz circles hopefully the buzz will land with the Hornets here in the Queen City. 

from an updated SF  Biz Journal article 

Could Wells Fargo’s ‘Project Falcon’ land bank’s headquarters in Dallas? - San Francisco Business Times (bizjournals.com)

“It would almost be an insult to the business acumen of senior Wells Fargo executives if they haven’t been contemplating this move for quite some time now,” site selection consultant John Boyd said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone." One factor coming into play is the expiration next year of a powerful economic-incentive program, Texas’ Chapter 313 property tax abatements. The program’s expiration is expected to put a damper on Texas’ long streak of winning big economic prizes, some of them at the expense of the Bay Area, such as Charles Schwab Corp. and McKesson. But for now, it appears there’s something of a land rush to take advantage of the program before it ends.    Others see Las Colinas as a strong candidate to capture Wells Fargo’s headquarters. The planned community in the Dallas suburb of Irving in fact calls itself the “headquarters of headquarters.”  “Dallas really has emerged as one of the nation’s premier financial services markets and premier fintech markets,” Boyd said.  “Las Colinas is one of the most prestigious addresses in Texas,” Boyd said. In addition to ExxonMobil, other companies based in affluent Las Colinas include Kimberly-Clark, Fluor and McKesson, which moved its headquarters from San Francisco in 2019. McKesson initially billed its Las Colinas office as a regional office in capturing millions of dollars in economic incentives.

Asked how Dallas might stack up against Charlotte as the future site of Wells Fargo’s headquarters, site selection consultants were hesitant to publicly tip one over the other.  Vranich declined to say which city Wells should choose, simply saying: “Wells Fargo is not my client, but if they were my client, I would be encouraging them to relocate their headquarters.  “I can’t say whether Dallas is better than Charlotte or better than some other place,” Vranich said. “All I know is just about any place is better than California, especially San Francisco, California.”""

MCKesson, Flour, Charles Schwab all are in the Dallas Ft Worth area and all were from the San Fran bay area.

Here is a photo of Las Colinas a huge planned community with DART rail access to downtown Dallas and just minutes via DART to DFW airport.  

God that place is 80s ugly....

[KJHburg]

4 minutes ago, Blue_Devil said:

God that place is 80s ugly....

I want to know more about this Wells space you say they are looking for in this area.  At one time they were going to lease 2 towers in Ballantyne but they only did one.  But I have heard of 40 plus story tower in the uptown southend area proposed too.   

Edited August 5, 2021 by KJHburg

[CLT2014]

More likely scenario if this is related to the San Francisco HQ:

• WF announces a new corporate campus in North Texas, consolidating most of their ~2,500 corporate employees there in one location and adding net-new jobs
• SF is gradually downsized 50%, with most roles there split among Minneapolis, Charlotte, and the new Dallas campus
  • Note, just over 13,000 people indicate they work for Wells Fargo in the SF Bay Area on LinkedIn, they are still VERY large in the Bay Area despite the growth in places like Charlotte 
• HQ shifts from SF to New York City, where the C-suite is actually located
• Wells Fargo becomes a company headquartered in New York with major corporate hubs in Minneapolis, Charlotte, and Dallas. 
  • This would align to the other big banks like Chase and Citi that are headquartered in New York, but have large operations in locations like North Texas
  • Stock market and investors would think this makes complete sense. HQ the city where the execs actually are and move jobs to a cheaper location like North Texas from SF.

Edited August 5, 2021 by CLT2014

[KJHburg]

Now this story from the Dallas Morning News seems to indicate a 400,000 sq ft office for Wells Fargo in Las Colinas outside of Dallas that might be more back office.   I agree with the above post some corporate functions maybe moved out of San Fran but who knows if it is the HQ.  Even moving lots of jobs but not the official HQ out of San Fran could save big money. 

Is Wells Fargo, code-named ‘Project Falcon,’ preparing to land in Las Colinas? (msn.com)

400,000 sq ft is big but the Wellls Fargo CIC on Harris is 2 million sq ft by comparison.  

[49er]

Officespace movie anyone? This was the first time I every heard of Los Colinas. 

[KJHburg]

LOL about Las Colinas.  Originally a 12,000 acre ranch called El Ranchito de Las Colinas was developed into a mini city.  25 Million sq ft of office space more than uptown Charlotte. Exxon Mobil is based there for example.  Imagine a Ballantyne but much bigger (6x the size) but with multiple golf communities and lots of office space.    This is their famous Mustang statue   Anyway I can see why Wells might be attracted there but now I think it is meant to be 3rd corporate hub and some consolidation of space in the huge Dallas Fort Worth market. 

they have an In N Out burger there and it is served by light rail of DART.    

[J-Rob]

31 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

they have an In N Out burger there

In N Out is pretty delicious, lol. Seems like a good enough reason to open a hub there if all else is equal.  

[kermit]

8 minutes ago, J-Rob said:

In N Out is pretty delicious, lol. Seems like a good enough reason to open a hub there if all else is equal.  

a long-term "debate" on twitter is the question of which is better, In N Out or Cookout. I Have been ignoring it, but now that there are economic development implications to the debate....

 

[InTheYear2000]

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

LOL about Las Colinas.  Originally a 12,000 acre ranch called El Ranchito de Las Colinas was developed into a mini city.  25 Million sq ft of office space more than uptown Charlotte. Exxon Mobil is based there for example.  Imagine a Ballantyne but much bigger (6x the size) but with multiple golf communities and lots of office space.    This is their famous Mustang statue   Anyway I can see why Wells might be attracted there but now I think it is meant to be 3rd corporate hub and some consolidation of space in the huge Dallas Fort Worth market. 

they have an In N Out burger there and it is served by light rail of DART.    

Do you know what Exxon does in the DFW area? The HQ and nearly all of the XOM brass is in their relatively new mega campus in the Woodlands just outside of Houston. They consolidated the legacy Mobil campus in Virginia, the downtown Houston offices and many of the other outposts there in around 2014-15. 

 

[KJHburg]

1 hour ago, InTheYear2000 said:

Do you know what Exxon does in the DFW area? The HQ and nearly all of the XOM brass is in their relatively new mega campus in the Woodlands just outside of Houston. They consolidated the legacy Mobil campus in Virginia, the downtown Houston offices and many of the other outposts there in around 2014-15. 

 

Yes that is true but for some reason they still list Dallas and Las Colinas as their HQ but you are right they have a huge campus south of The Woodlands north of Houston believe me I tried to get in it.  Massive gates and fences so only a glimpse.  They vacated some buildings in Las Colinas and like you said in Fairfax too to this new campus. 

[JRNYP2C]

On 8/5/2021 at 5:28 PM, KJHburg said:

I want to know more about this Wells space you say they are looking for in this area.  At one time they were going to lease 2 towers in Ballantyne but they only did one.  But I have heard of 40 plus story tower in the uptown southend area proposed too.   

Very loose rumors is that there were two more towers planned in Ballantyne next to the one already there.  However, my understanding is that the pandemic may have slowed (or stopped) that migration as new office space needs may have waned.  There is still a push to get mostly everyone out of Uptown.  However, CIC still has a TON of space and it just needs to be rehabbed (painfully so).  They want people in the cheap seats and not Uptown where rent is supposedly too high.  There will be a presence Uptown, but not nearly as much as it used to be.

[KJHburg]

In other bank news I went to an interesting Bank of America branch in Harrisburg last week.  Full size store front in a Publix anchored shopping center.  You needed your ATM card to enter the building.  Then you are greeted by not a human but a video screen.  There were 3 regular ATMs inside and 2 rooms where you could video chat with a banker located somewhere else. Basically there was not a human in sight and I saw someone talking in a room to someone by video chat.    This branch is probably a good idea to fill in areas and keep costs low.  Bank of America never opened a branch in Harrisburg despite many employees living here until Chase Bank came into the town and opened a traditional branch.  So you BofA customers check out this branch of the future. 

Edited August 9, 2021 by KJHburg

[SydneyCarton]

On 8/6/2021 at 8:38 AM, KJHburg said:

Now this story from the Dallas Morning News seems to indicate a 400,000 sq ft office for Wells Fargo in Las Colinas outside of Dallas that might be more back office.   I agree with the above post some corporate functions maybe moved out of San Fran but who knows if it is the HQ.  Even moving lots of jobs but not the official HQ out of San Fran could save big money. 

Is Wells Fargo, code-named ‘Project Falcon,’ preparing to land in Las Colinas? (msn.com)

400,000 sq ft is big but the Wellls Fargo CIC on Harris is 2 million sq ft by comparison.  

I suspect that this is back office, and it may entail a huge chunk of mortgage servicing too, since DFW is the epicenter of that industry in the US.  I think that if the HQ moves anywhere, it will be to NY.  They're not worried about costs for the top 500 people.

P.S.: I like Cookout, but in the Triangle, at least, they're in filthy and disgusting locations.

[KJHburg]

2 not so small banks have opened small offices in Charlotte this week!

Woodforest National Bank based in The Woodlands TX and the onsite bank of Walmart stores nationwide.

""Woodforest National Bank is ready to punch above its weight with a growing commercial team now settled into an uptown office.  The 4,100-square-foot office at 101 S. Tryon St. houses its corporate and middle-market banking team. Woodforest's local team was in Ballantyne for five years but found most of its commercial business interactions were in uptown, said Julie Dargani, head of mid-Atlantic corporate banking. She looked for a space for about nine months.  Next door is an approximately 2,600-square-foot space into which Woodforest can expand if it chooses. Once expanded, the uptown office would be able to hold about 25 employees, Dargani said.

Woodforest National Bank positioned for growth with new uptown presence - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

and another Texas based bank Comerica opened up an loan office here.

""Dallas-based Comerica Bank is expanding into North Carolina with three commercial offices, including one in Charlotte. The $88.4 billion-asset bank is in the later stages of securing office space in Charlotte. Jerry Bowen, Southeast market president for Comerica, said the bank looked in the uptown, South End and SouthPark areas, with SouthPark being of particular interest.""

Comerica coming to Charlotte in Southeast expansion - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

[KJHburg]

My periodic open job check and some  of these are posted in multiple cities but always include Charlotte.

US Bank 61 jobs

Truist 170 jobs

MUFG  119 jobs  and yet has no  permanent office space .....yet.....

Ally Bank  239 jobs

Wells Fargo 599 jobs!    178 jobs some cross posted in other cities for San Fran and 515 posted in Minneapolis

Vanguard   124 jobs

TIAA is harder to search and I did not want to search all their divisions 

Since the financial industry is our biggest user of office space it is interesting to see who is expanding and hiring here 

[Blue_Devil]

12 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

My periodic open job check and some  of these are posted in multiple cities but always include Charlotte.

US Bank 61 jobs

Truist 170 jobs

MUFG  119 jobs  and yet has no  permanent office space .....yet.....

Ally Bank  239 jobs

Wells Fargo 599 jobs!    178 jobs some cross posted in other cities for San Fran and 515 posted in Minneapolis

Vanguard   124 jobs

TIAA is harder to search and I did not want to search all their divisions 

Since the financial industry is our biggest user of office space it is interesting to see who is expanding and hiring here 

Don't forget CitiBank with 23 and JPM Chase with 41 open positions. Citi is focusing on AML and Audit, while Chase seems to be focusing on Private Banking with some Controls and Compliance positions scattered in. 

[KJHburg]

Speaking of US Bank they have 950 employees which include only a few at their 2 current open branches.

From the Biz Journal about their next 2 branches

""U.S. Bank employs 950 people across its business lines in Charlotte, including corporate and commercial banking, investment services, risk and compliance and mortgage.""

""Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank will open two branches here in less than a year, including a new flagship operation in SouthPark. That 4,964-square-foot branch will be at 4525 Sharon Road and its largest one in the market. U.S. Bank is leasing the ground floor of the four-story building, which formerly housed Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), and plans to make significant changes. The SouthPark location is scheduled to open in the spring, said Dee O'Dell, east regional executive for consumer and business banking.  Earlier this summer, U.S. Bank filed an application with regulators to open a branch at 9836 Rea Road in Blakeney. That 4,263-square-foot location, a former SunTrust space, is scheduled to open in October, O'Dell said.""

How U.S. Bank is forging ahead with its local retail expansion - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

[atlrvr]

On 8/17/2021 at 1:58 PM, KJHburg said:

My periodic open job check and some  of these are posted in multiple cities but always include Charlotte.

US Bank 61 jobs

Truist 170 jobs

MUFG  119 jobs  and yet has no  permanent office space .....yet.....

Ally Bank  239 jobs

Wells Fargo 599 jobs!    178 jobs some cross posted in other cities for San Fran and 515 posted in Minneapolis

Vanguard   124 jobs

TIAA is harder to search and I did not want to search all their divisions 

Since the financial industry is our biggest user of office space it is interesting to see who is expanding and hiring here 

USAA - 79

5/3  Bank - 71

Citizens Bank - 35

Varo Money - 27

Regions Bank - 26

 

[KJHburg]

 for those who are concerned our banks might not be innovative read this:

""Charlotte-based BofA (NYSE: BAC) was granted 227 patents in the first half of 2021, the highest it has seen in the first six months of any year. It was also a 23% increase from last year. Forty percent of the patents were granted in artificial intelligence and machine learning, plus information security and mobile banking, to name a few.  BofA has also applied for more than 400 patents in the first half of this year. Applications typically take years to be approved. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and information security are again the most prevalent topics among those patent applications.  “Innovation is at the heart of all we do and must be driven by what customers want, not by what banks think they want. The sustainable development and deployment of technology play an important role in making our clients’ financial lives easier," Cathy Bessant, BofA chief operations and technology officer, said in a statement to the Charlotte Business Journal.""

Bank of America breaks patent record - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

[navigator319]

While agree this is good news. Our patent system is broken. Patents are approved for trivial things these days not for innovation purposes but purely legal and anticompetitive. It’s abuse.

[KJHburg]

Charlotte's fintech market is way more concentrated than many of our peer cities'. You can go to Austin or Boston, but you'll be pulling talent from Google or IBM and training them in finance - in Charlotte, you're pulling from Bank of America, Ally, LendingTree, etc.   from Twitter Alyssa Brown

[KJHburg]

Speaking of FinTech I would be working to attract second HQs or major relocations of all these FinTechs out in San Fran.  Oh yeah the first one on the list has 20 Charlotte job openings for their un-announced Charlotte office.

266 Fintech Companies In San Francisco Bay Area | Built In San Francisco (builtinsf.com)

Careers | Varo Bank: Join the bank on a mission (varomoney.com)

And the parent company of Credit Karma is  Intuit....