Wells Fargo moving most employees from downtown Des Moines offices

Tyler Jett, Des Moines Register

January 27, 2023 at 8:04 PM·5 min read

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In another blow to downtown Des Moines, Wells Fargo & Co. is moving workers to the suburbs.

Kristy Fercho, head of home lending at the bank, told employees in an email Friday that most workers will leave their downtown Des Moines offices this year for the company's West Des Moines campus at 800 S. Jordan Creek Parkway. A company spokesperson did not immediately know how many workers will be heading west, though the company plans to vacate its offices at 800 Walnut St. and 206 8th St.

The Jordan Creek campus can accommodate 12,000 employees ― enough to house every Wells Fargo worker in the Des Moines metro, spokesperson Mike Slusark said. The company is making the moves to cut costs, and they plan to sell the buildings they are leaving.

"It’s about making sure we’re being fiscally responsible, as far as our real estate expenses," Slusark said.

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Employees will continue to work at another downtown Des Moines office at 801 Walnut St. The company's legal department and corporate and investment banking divisions will move there from the other downtown offices.

In West Des Moines, employees will also move to the Jordan Creek campus from Wells Fargo's 7001 Westown Parkway office.

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Wells Fargo joins other employers leaving downtown

Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie said in a statement that Wells Fargo's decision was "disappointing and frustrating."

"Downtown offers amenities that exemplify the benefits of working in an urban core and matches a national trend that other employers experience in locating their workers downtown," Cownie said. "... I am confident their decision does not reflect on the quality of workforce or economic environment provided in our City."

The announcement comes as other companies have allowed employees to shift to a hybrid work model. The Greater Des Moines Partnership told the Des Moines Register earlier this week that the number of downtown workers is at about 64% of the city's pre-pandemic level.

As many Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. workers stayed home, the city announced in September that it would buy one of the company's two prominent downtown offices, shifting some city employees from the East Village.

MidAmerican Energy Co., meanwhile, announced in December that it would leave the Ruan Center at 666 Grand Ave. this year. The utility, which rents four floors inside that building, will buy one of the two offices on the western edge of downtown owned by Dotdash Meredith. (Dotdash Meredith, in turn, announced this week that it cut 45 Des Moines jobs.)

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Wells Fargo a key downtown employer since Norwest merger

In 1998, when Norwest purchased Wells Fargo in a megabank merger, about 3,500 Iowans worked for Norwest, according to Register archives. Many of those workers were in Des Moines, where Norwest based its home lending division. Norwest executives assured local reporters at the time that they would not turn their backs on the city.

They followed through. The resulting company based Wells Fargo Financial at 206 8th St., a 250,000-square-foot building. The bank and the city reached a development agreement in 2000 to build another office next door, with Des Moines offering $15 million.

"I don't know if we got the best deal in the whole world," Wells Fargo Financial Chairman Daniel Porter told the Register at the time. "Ideally, if you can be in a location like this, I think you take advantage of it. I think the best business environment is downtown."

The result: 800 Walnut St., a 350,000-square-foot, $90 million office that brought 1,100 employees from around the metro under one roof. Wells Fargo also built a parking garage that fit about 1,600 vehicles.

The company continued to build in town, adding another $90 million office across the street at 801 Walnut St. The building, known internally as NorthStar, was designed by architect Jon Pickard and finished in 2006. Pickard, a Des Moines native, told the Register a year later that he hoped to evoke a jewel box, with floor-to-ceiling windows and steel frames.

All the while, however, a move to West Des Moines loomed. The company received about $56.5 million in state and local tax incentives in 2003 to build a new campus.

The public assistance came as developers began to conquer the western edge of the western suburb for a big profit. West Des Moines city officials announced that their community was a finalist for Wells Fargo's new campus just as builders began to put together plans to develop what is now Jordan Creek Town Center.

"It's going to be an epicenter for growth," Jim Hubbell, then-CEO of CBRE|Hubbell Commercial, said at the time, of the two big developments.

Wells Fargo finished its first phase at the Jordan Creek campus in 2006 with three, 265,000-square-foot offices. The company added a fourth office in 2014.

At the time, West Des Moines Community and Economic Development Director Clyde Evans told the Register that Wells Fargo planned to build 13 buildings at the site, with another 13 parking garages.

Wells Fargo says shift of workers not tied to mortgage business cuts

Wells Fargo's announcement comes as the company makes cuts in its Des Moines-based mortgage division. The company announced it would close its correspondent business, which buys mortgages from other lenders.

The company has also laid off about 425 employees in central Iowa since April. Wells Fargo's home lending business has suffered as mortgage interest rates increased last year.