Just got word that all non-customer facing employees in DSM are being "consolidated" (crammed) into one building. DSM currently has over 12,000 WF employees. How do they expect to fit that many people into one building? I'm afraid I already know the answer...They don't.
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Cross-selling, which is where the big scandal originated, was all legacy Wells Fargo. Carrie Tolstedt, who ran the retail bank, was legacy Wells Fargo.
By the time Scharf is done, Wells Fargo will mostly be an Investment Bank and brokerage, which was all Wachovia as Wells Fargo was extremely weak in these areas.
@3kqy+1kT0s8NT you were told wrong. Google news articles from 2008 and read for yourself. Wachovia managed its self out of existence. Also some bad acquisitions on their part (which Wells had to clean up ).
In hindsight there was NOTHING positive in it for Wells Fargo buying Wachovia
I call bullsh$t. I live in Charlotte and have been told that Wachovia and Wells Fargo merged to help each other out.
Thanks for the history lesson, I had no idea that happened.
There were some questions about my post on the take-over of Wachovia by Wells Fargo. So here is the history lesson. In the middle of 2008, the US was in the middle of a financial meltdown that stemmed from bad loan losses caused from certain types of loans generated to allow lower income families to purchase homes. See also year 2023. Wells Fargo did not participate in those types of loan originations and were therefore immune to the type of losses associated with it. Wachovia was not immune and based a good portion of their effort in originating them. Pick-A-Pay anyone....anyone? So, the federal government stepped in and forced 2 companies to bid on the company, Citibank and Wells Fargo. Initially it was only Citibank and there was a deal in place that just needed approved. Wells was forced into the conversation by the feds because Citibank would require government support to prop up Wachovia. This leads me to the cancer that is Wachovia. Clearly there were issues with management and decisions made that led to the failure. The bulk of those people stayed on to "help with the merger" and found ways to permanently stay on. Now they are doing it again. Stepping away from originating good solid loans from people that can actually afford to buy a house and trying to appease a demographic that has already proven they will step away from a mortgage leaving anyone but themselves holding the bag. I'm talking about lower income earners who should not be buying houses in a market that is already inflated at the beginning of a recession. Oh, and Wachovia was based out of Charlotte, NC (East Coast) while Wells Fargo had a headquarters in San Francisco, but we OG's all know that Minneapolis, MN and Des Moines, IA are the heart and soul of the company. That is all.
Because we didn’t RTO
You’ll reserve a seat each night before you come in.
I have spent all of my 10 years at the company in the Jordan Creek campus.
For those of your not in DSM, the JC Campus is 4 large buildings connected, plus two additional wings for two cafeterias, a gym, and conference rooms. It is 15% solar powered and has tons of walking trails. Actually an extremely nice facility if they would just fix that one broken toilet near me.
Since the pandemic, the building is pretty empty, to the extreme that only 1 of the cafeterias is open. So there is PLENTY of space for the people in the buildings they are closing.
Honestly, I think the strategy makes sense. The biggest issue is 5-6 years ago there was a wing of the JC Campus that caught fire and closed things down for a day. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again!
There will be closer to 7000 people to be consolidated by the end of the summer. There will be plenty of room.
Did we already get out of the Cards building on Vista Dr, and Norwood bldg, Cambridge bldg, etc. on Office Plaza Drive? (All lease space, owned by R&R Realty)
What about the Bell building? Are we still using it?
And the Park Ave building?
If we are still using these places, why don’t they vacate those first?
Re: “ Was consolidation already planned? The JC Camus is huge so it almost would seem that was the plan. Are there any other locations with similar campuses?”
No, this was not the original plan. The Jordan Creek campus was built when the Mortgage industry was booming. They kept putting us in various rented spaces (expensive), and they needed more owned space as they were hiring employees. Although they talked about getting out of Riverpoint (by Sec Taylor) when they built Jordan Creek, leaving Riverpoint didn’t end up happening until a little later.
Now in 2023, they just displaced…er…laid off a whole bunch of Mortgage employees. They have downsized over the last 2.5 years. So there’s space all over Des Moines now.
In spite of that, I’m still lost as to how so many people in Des Moines fit at Jordan Creek. I guess this means there are not plans to go to 5 days per week in office or everyone really wouldn’t fit.
@wqg What’s this mean?:
“the East Coast may win and take down the company with it”
@wqg+1kT0s8NT What do you mean by the "Forced takeover of Wachovia"? I am new to Wells and I did not hear of that talk.
These comments are great! I needed the popcorn break.
https://who13.com/news/wells-fargo-closing-downtown-des-moines-offices-moving-to-west-des-moines/
Solution = bunk cubicles. Why waste the high ceilings?
This sucks.
They will fill Jordan Creek to capacity in WDM but they have a problem with the Skyview and Northstar buildings in downtown Des Moines. WF secured large tax concessions to build and staff at certain occupancies. If the close those on the hook for repayment let alone there will be no buyers for those owned properties.
Also, everyone transfered to Jordan Creek enjoy the extra 20 to 45 minutes added each way of your commute.
They will fit you all in. Picture the coach section on an airplane. That will be the new seating configuration. Think I’m exaggerating? I wish.
JC is close to where Top Golf is being built. I see a lot of offsite meetings happening there.
Was consolidation already planned? The JC Camus is huge so it almost would seem that was the plan. Are there any other locations with similar campuses?
HQ building is wells owned
JC complex with the 4th wing that was added could hold close to 10000 I believe The first three was 6000 to 8000.
I believe the mortgage HQ is leased.
The Home Mortgage Headquarters is in West Des Moines, away from Jordan Creek - speculation that building will be vacated.
Des Moines is a hub for Mortgage and Cards. When Norwest bought Wells Fargo, Home Mortgage was based out of Minnesota and expanded to the Des Moines area for backup and redundance. Cards and Wells Fargo Financial (in-store credit for example) was also mainly in the Des Moines area. So much knowledge of these three products still resides here. Yes, Des Moines will be impacted and impacted hard when they finally decide to downsize, but there are essential people here.
I can say with even more certainty than I have in the past that the downfall of Wells Fargo is the forced takeover of Wachovia and the toxic mindset that came with them. John Stumpf did a terrible job of managing the takeover and didn't weed out enough of the Wachovia cancer. Unfortunately, the toxic people festered and spread. Now, it appears the East Coast may win and take down the company with it.
They won't be down to one building. Maybe one building downtown, but the Jordan Creek campus is huge.
13000 in DSM actually. And JC has two large buildings mo--n.
Does 12,000 include all branches and WFA people too? It sounds like a few groups won’t be moving but I bet they will sell the mortgage building.
DSM is a hub for Mortgage and Risk. The building they are moving everyone to has a large Mortgage presence today. Probably won’t much longer.
I take it there's no impact on the company if DSM goes down? Like a huge natural disaster or something? No idea what this group does, but it sounds expendable. BCP anyone?