Wells Fargo Bank

Wells Fargo Bank is one of the largest retail and commercial banking institutions in the United States. The bank serves consumers, small businesses, middle‑market companies, and large corporations with services that include everyday banking, lending, wealth management, treasury services, and other financial solutions. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with a major operations hub in Charlotte, North Carolina, and supports its customers through a nationwide network of branches, ATMs, and digital channels.

The company’s history dates back to 1852, when Henry Wells and William G. Fargo founded Wells, Fargo & Co. in San Francisco to support merchants and miners during the California Gold Rush. The original business combined express delivery of gold, mail, and other valuables with basic banking services, and quickly expanded across the Western United States by stagecoach and later by rail. Over time, the enterprise grew from a regional express and gold bank into a broad national financial institution as transportation networks and U.S. capital markets developed.

A defining modern milestone came in 1998, when Norwest Corporation acquired Wells Fargo & Company and chose to keep the Wells Fargo name for the combined organization. That transaction created a larger coast‑to‑coast franchise. The acquisition of Wachovia in 2008 further extended the bank’s reach, adding a major East Coast and Southeast presence and significantly increasing its deposit base and branch network. As of December 2024, Wells Fargo generates more than $80 billion in annual revenue and serves tens of millions of customers across retail, commercial, and institutional segments, supported by an employee base of roughly 226,000 people in the mid‑2020s.

From a real estate perspective, Wells Fargo operates an extensive physical network across the United States that includes full‑service branches, in‑store locations, standalone ATMs, and office space, along with select international offices supporting corporate and institutional clients. As of December 2024, the bank maintains an estimated 4,600 branches nationwide. These range from high‑visibility urban flagships to suburban community branches and smaller in‑store formats located inside supermarkets and other busy retail environments. Many locations are designed around integrated digital tools and advisory‑focused layouts, aligning in‑person banking with strong online and mobile platforms.

Over roughly the last five years, Wells Fargo has been reshaping this footprint. The bank has closed a meaningful number of lower‑volume branches while upgrading and reinvesting in higher‑productivity locations. The current strategy favors optimizing existing real estate, improving digital engagement, and focusing on branches that serve dense, attractive trade areas. As part of this shift, the company has selectively opened new or replacement branches in high‑traffic corridors and strong metropolitan markets rather than pursuing broad, net new unit growth.

Today, the bank places particular emphasis on major U.S. metropolitan areas, fast‑growing Sun Belt markets, and established core markets where it already holds leading deposit share. This posture has practical implications for landlords, brokers, and developers. A Wells Fargo branch or office often serves as a stable, creditworthy anchor in shopping centers, mixed‑use projects, and office buildings, contributing to daytime population and regular customer traffic. The ongoing consolidation and modernization of the network can create backfill opportunities in older sites, while also driving demand for prominent corners and efficient, modern banking or office spaces in key growth corridors and established urban submarkets.