Wells Fargo consolidates Twin Cities offices

Wells Fargo & Co. is consolidating its suburban Twin Cities locations, shifting about 1,000 workers to expanded office space in St. Louis Park.

The bank has signed a long-term lease for 477,800 square feet of office space at the Metropoint complex in St. Louis Park near the General Mills headquarters on the north side of Interstate 394.

Wells Fargo is more than tripling the space it currently rents there, according to property owner BPG Properties Ltd., which announced the lease Monday.

Metropoint is already home to workers in Wells Fargo's insurance and home mortgage businesses. Last year, Wells Fargo transferred about 450 employees to Metropoint from its Wells Fargo Home Mortgage operation in the former Honeywell Inc. headquarters in south Minneapolis.

It's relocating still more of that staff as part of the new consolidation, but wouldn't say how many.

The country's fourth-largest bank by assets, Wells Fargo is headquartered in San Francisco and employs about 20,000 people in Minnesota, where it is the state's dominant lender and a major employer.

About 8,500 of its Minnesota workforce are with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, which is based in Des Moines, Iowa, but has a significant Twin Cities presence.

"Over the next three years we are consolidating from three suburban locations to the Metropoint complex in St. Louis Park," it said. "This transition involves approximately 1,000 team members in our Payroll Services and Insurance Services business."

Wells Fargo said it is relocating more workers from the south Minneapolis home mortgage campus "to reduce current traffic and parking congestion at the campus facility."

Wells Fargo wouldn't identify the locations affected by the consolidation. The lender's suburban operations, not including bank branches, include Eagan, Bloomington, and Eden Prairie, where the bank rents space on the old ADC Telecommunications campus that UnitedHealth Group Inc. bought. It also operates a large call center in Shoreview.

BPG Properties Ltd. is a private-equity real estate fund manager based in Philadelphia.