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KJHburg

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1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

any word on a location for Varo Bank (which has 9 openings here) and for Silicon Valley Bank (which has 57 job openings) here?  I heard rumors of both going to different buildings but nothing lately.  Anybody know anything? 

Varo let go of 10% of their staff recently and eliminated numerous open positions as they restructure in pursuit of profitability. Given their current cost cutting mode, I wouldn't expect a big real estate splash... they are burning cash and the current economic climate caught up with them.

Edited by CLT2014
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On 8/17/2022 at 10:09 AM, turbocraig said:

I get that, but the way the article reads is they are targeting high growth cities on the east coast (presumably for branch networks, since that’s what the article was about and the context of the interview question).  So it still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  What qualifies as a high-growth east coast city, if we don’t?  Just doesn’t jive to me.  No biggie either way, I likely wouldn’t move my business, it just reads like vaporware in context.  

Welp, looks like they (TD Bank) agree with you and are opening 15 branches here over the next 3 years.  I didn't realize they already had a branches few in NC, just nowhere close to Charlotte, but that makes much easier from a regulatory point of view.

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41 minutes ago, atlrvr said:

Welp, looks like they (TD Bank) agree with you and are opening 15 branches here over the next 3 years.  I didn't realize they already had a branches few in NC, just nowhere close to Charlotte, but that makes much easier from a regulatory point of view.

If you would just listen to me…:P

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8 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

Varo let go of 10% of their staff recently and eliminated numerous open positions as they restructure in pursuit of profitability. Given their current cost cutting mode, I wouldn't expect a big real estate splash... they are burning cash and the current economic climate caught up with them.

funny how companies figure out you have to begin to make money sooner or later.    The investor cash flow into these startups has really shrunken and only the strong will survive the next few years. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
2 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

I don’t know.

No they used to have a large customer service center in Greensboro.  The closed it and consolidated with Fort Lauderdale location though they have a big data center in SE Greensboro.  The old Amex building?  now owned and used by Truist Bank near the PTI airport. 

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from San Fran Business Journal

""No one from Wells Fargo's 17-member “senior leadership team” remains based at the bank’s headquarters in San Francisco, the bank told me Wednesday.

The senior leadership team, as outlined on the bank’s website, includes CEO Charlie Scharf and the C-suite along with other senior executives, such as the heads of several business units.

By January 2022, only one member of the senior leadership team was still based at the bank’s nominal headquarters in San Francisco. That was Chief Auditor Julie Scammahorn, who lost her battle with cancer in February. As recently as February 2020, Wells had four members of its then 15-member senior leadership team based in San Francisco, where the bank (NYSE: WFC) was founded in 1852 amid the Gold Rush. 

The possible loss of Wells Fargo’s San Francisco headquarters moved back into the spotlight this week when the bank announced it is building a major corporate campus in Las Colinas near Dallas to accommodate up to 4,000""           Reports from Dallas media show this as twin 10 story buildings for the Wells 3000 employees in the region plus 650 new hires for this new Las Colinas office.  Las Colinas is like a Ballantyne on steroids with light rail to both downtown Dallas and nearby DFW Airport.  It is quite the suburban town center if you have never seen it.  https://lascolinas.org/about-las-colinas/

No word of course on HQ relocation out of SF but even the buzz in the Dallas media notes Wells has 27,000 plus people here in Charlotte.   I still think Wells HQ will move from SF one day but where I dont know but it would be either NYC or Charlotte.  

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1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

from San Fran Business Journal

""No one from Wells Fargo's 17-member “senior leadership team” remains based at the bank’s headquarters in San Francisco, the bank told me Wednesday.

The senior leadership team, as outlined on the bank’s website, includes CEO Charlie Scharf and the C-suite along with other senior executives, such as the heads of several business units.

By January 2022, only one member of the senior leadership team was still based at the bank’s nominal headquarters in San Francisco. That was Chief Auditor Julie Scammahorn, who lost her battle with cancer in February. As recently as February 2020, Wells had four members of its then 15-member senior leadership team based in San Francisco, where the bank (NYSE: WFC) was founded in 1852 amid the Gold Rush. 

The possible loss of Wells Fargo’s San Francisco headquarters moved back into the spotlight this week when the bank announced it is building a major corporate campus in Las Colinas near Dallas to accommodate up to 4,000""           Reports from Dallas media show this as twin 10 story buildings for the Wells 3000 employees in the region plus 650 new hires for this new Las Colinas office.  Las Colinas is like a Ballantyne on steroids with light rail to both downtown Dallas and nearby DFW Airport.  It is quite the suburban town center if you have never seen it.  https://lascolinas.org/about-las-colinas/

No word of course on HQ relocation out of SF but even the buzz in the Dallas media notes Wells has 27,000 plus people here in Charlotte.   I still think Wells HQ will move from SF one day but where I dont know but it would be either NYC or Charlotte.

Charlotte will remain very important to Wells regardless of where the HQ is.

Edited by SydneyCarton
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1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

While I, like everyone else, root for Clt., in reality, Wells HQ would move to NY.  It’s the undisputed epicenter of global finance, and it’s where the super-rich want to be.  There’s a reason why they keep building towers with $50m+ condos that keep selling out.  Also, many banks and financial firms have recently built, are building, or are looking to build massive new HQs in NYC.  JP Morgan’s 1,400’ palace is a case in point.

However, Charlotte would remain very important, and DFW would probably grow too.

Your post suggests that being in the "epicenter of global finance" should be the overriding variable in Wells' decision on a new HQ.  The problem with that reasoning is that such a variable doesn't bear out as significant in the HQ realities of most of the other top 10 banks which have HQ locations in places as varied as Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, and Charlotte.  I also doubt Wells' executive committee and board give two beans about such gross displays of inequity and asset offshoring as the pace of $50m condo sales in a HQ decision.  If it is leaked that such a factor is driving any sort of site selection by Wells, then we should expect an even greater cascade of Wells woes than what we've seen the past few years, and probably a surge in short interest.

Edited by RANYC
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1 hour ago, CarolinaDaydreamin said:

Dallas is the most overrated city in the country. Period.

Their media is also way over hyping Wells largely consolidating their existing Dallas-Fort Worth employee base (largely back office roles) from a bunch of spread out offices with separate leases to one campus as Las Colinas... And taken that to  be "clearly we are the future HQ." 4,000 people isn't even that many jobs in the Wells footprint....

Edited by CLT2014
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Your post suggests that being in the "epicenter of global finance" should be the overriding variable in Wells' decision on a new HQ.  The problem with that reasoning is that such a variable doesn't bear out as significant in the HQ realities of most of the other top 10 banks which have HQ locations in places as varied as Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, and Charlotte.  I also doubt Wells' executive committee and board give two beans about such gross displays of inequity and asset offshoring as the pace of $50m condo sales in a HQ decision.  If it is leaked that such a factor is driving any sort of site selection by Wells, then we should expect an even greater cascade of Wells woes than what we've seen the past few years, and probably a surge in short interest.

To add on to this, I have not concrete data on the amount but it is definitely present that these absurdly expensive condos worth tens of millions are bought as a way to appreciate or store wealth and can remained uninhabited for a long time out of year. (There may be laws in place or in the works to limit this activity of empty dwellings and require a certain residency time of sorts that you must occupy the space in order to avoid fees of some sort). If you don’t know it’s an interesting concept. Property as a way to store wealth but for the super rich despite not living ever in the condo for large segment(s) of the year.

They probably spend most of their time living in the suburbs in their McMansions than their downtown/midtown condo.
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43 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I would say ignore Dallas at your peril.  They ARE a competitor for Charlotte and lots of businesses.   (Toyota North American HQ was considering Charlotte and Ballantyne before they picked Plano and Legacy Park) 

This is what was also in that article from San Francisco about Wells new Las Colinas office from John Boyd econ development consultant:

""There are plenty of reasons Wells might want to make Las Colinas its new headquarters. In addition to the region’s talent pool for financial services, becoming the largest bank based in Texas could have its marketing advantages in the Lone Star State. And choosing Texas over Charlotte would help Wells avoid playing second fiddle to Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp., which grew into what it is today, in part, by purchasing one of Texas’ biggest failed banks in the 1980s.""     Biggest employment hub does not mean HQ if so Wells would have been in Charlotte 10 years ago.  

To each his own on Dallas but there are quite a few things we can learn from them. 

Mainly they have the largest light rail network in the country in a metro area that is like us very car dependent.    They have current Blue, Orange, Red, Green lines and like Charlotte they are planning a Silver Line which theirs is the planning stages now.  Oh yeah commuter rail too.  Las Colinas is on the orange line west of downtown Dallas. 

https://www.dart.org/maps/printrailmap.asp

Freeway cap?  Yeah the Big D has one a 5.2 acre one right downtown see my attached photo from last year. 

https://www.klydewarrenpark.org/about-the-park/our-story.html

Overrated? no they have a created a metropolis on the open plains that is world economic powerhouse now.

We need to keep an eye on Dallas (and maybe build a bigger eye then they have LOL) 

2nd photo freeway cap Kyde Warren Park and their DART trains 

 

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I think you’re spot on.  Thanks for the analysis.  Progress comes from the humility to learn from challenge & difference rather than to hate or disparage it.

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