Wells Fargo is leaving nine floors on Independence Mall to consolidate offices on West Market Street
“We have more real estate than we need to support our current employee count in Philadelphia given our hybrid work schedule,” a spokesperson said.
Wells Fargo announced to its Philadelphia employees on Friday afternoon that the company is consolidating its office space in the city on West Market Street.
The company will leave its nine floors in the Philadelphia Plaza building at 101 N. Independence Mall for offices in Two Logan Square and Commerce Square.
“We have more real estate than we need to support our current employee count in Philadelphia given our hybrid work schedule and the flexibility that we offer now after COVID,” said Elise Corbett, spokesperson for Wells Fargo.
The company declined to say how many employees were affected.
Corbett emphasized that there will be no layoffs, displacements of jobs outside the city, or changes to Wells Fargo’s existing hybrid schedule of three days in office and two days at home.
The company already has office space in Two Logan, so it will consolidate its presence around West Market.
Banking offices have been in the Philadelphia Plaza building, also known as 401 Market St., since it opened in 1973 as Philadelphia National Bank’s operations headquarters. Wachovia later acquired the bank, and then Wells Fargo.
Building owner Miller Real Estate Fund II said the building provides an opportunity for new tenants, with unique infrastructure related to its use as an operations and data center for Wells Fargo.
“It has largely been unavailable to the broader tenant market since 1973, when it was built,” said Matthew Ryan, investment professional with Miller Investment Management LP. “We think it has some of the best light and air and exposure of any building in Philadelphia.”
Wells Fargo would not comment on the square footage of their offices in the building, but a 2015 news release from Miller Real Estate listed it as having 500,000 square feet of space. The only other tenant, the American Bible Society, is on two floors with 130,000 square feet of space.
“We’ve been in this building since 1973,” Corbett said. “This [move] gives us a chance to have fresh space. There are fitness centers on-site. New state-of-the-art training and meeting facilities. Different views of the Parkway, when we’re used to looking over Independence Mall.”
Corbett said the move is part of a larger national restructuring of commercial office space by Wells Fargo. Observers of the Philadelphia market say the move is not surprising, given larger post-COVID conditions.
“A majority of the demand for space is not in the Independence Mall market. Those are users that usually have some geographic need or desire to be there,” said Bill Luff, head of the commercial property consultancy CRE Visions in Philadelphia.
“Wells Fargo already has a presence on western Market Street. Most of the financial services-related entities are already concentrated on western Market Street. So this does not surprise me,” Luff said.
In a message to employees, Wells Fargo said that the move to the other side of Center City will be phased, beginning in the third quarter of this year. There is no word on the future of the company’s other regional office spaces in Plymouth Meeting and Wilmington, Del.