What will Wells Fargo towers do to the downtown real estate market?
As transformative as a $400 million development project will be for one side of downtown, it threatens to leave another side with some gaping holes should Wells Fargo choose to pick up and leave some of its downtown offices.
It’s space that won’t easily be filled given current office market dynamics, and the company’s effort to consolidate workers will cast its own economic ripples, said Brent Erickson, senior director at Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq.
In the Twin Cities, the bank’s huge workforce is spread across at least 16 locations from Eden Prairie to Eagan to Shoreview. About 7,000 of the more than 20,000 employees Wells Fargo has in Minnesota work in downtown Minneapolis, in 14 buildings.
The bank has said it plans to stay put in its local headquarters downtown in the tall, golden Wells Fargo Center next to the IDS Center. Everything else appears to be up for grabs.
...Those include the Northstar Center, where it leases about 520,000 square feet, and the Baker Center, where it leases about 450,000 square feet. Both buildings are old, but the cheap Class B office space could play in favor of the bank staying.
...A few suggested that the buildings might be best redeveloped for another use altogether, such as apartments, or perhaps even torn down.