Wells Fargo has leased more than 7,600 square feet in Vancouvercenter’s North Office Tower. Wells Fargo plans to use the fifth-floor space to relocate 15 members of its Private Client Services staff from their current location at 1111 Main St. in downtown Vancouver.
Wells Fargo’s lease at Vancouvercenter enables the company to expand its Private Client Services operations and accommodate its growing staff in Vancouver. The company anticipates moving the office into Vancouvercenter later this year.
Renee Newman, Vancouver-based private banking manager and vice-president with Wells Fargo, said the company is almost doubling the space they currently have and will be looking to expand the brokerage side of the department right away. Newman expects the office to fill out the space over the length of the lease, five years. There will be few if any hires before the office moves into the new space.
“We are looking, but most likely we might try to wait and settle in,” she said.
Since 2002, the Vancouver-based Wells Fargo Private Client Services office has grown substantially, doubling the number of bankers to two, adding a trust assistant and growing the brokerage side.
“We are making an effort to increase our market share and get out in the market,” she said.
Wells Fargo has demonstrated strong growth in Clark County over the last four years, increasing the total number of staff members from 113 to 500 since May of 2001.
Wells Fargo Private Client Services provides banking, credit, investment management, brokerage, and trust and estate planning services to affluent clients.
Wells Fargo was represented by Jack Gallagher of NAI-Norris, Beggs and Simpson’s Portland office. Vancouvercenter was represented by Tamara Fuller and Kirk Robertson, from the firm’s Vancouver office. Other tenants of Vancouvercenter include Hilton Hotels, Management Recruiters Inc., Otak Inc., Rocketshop and the Washington Department of Transportation.
Bay Bank, owned by Longview-based Cowlitz Bancorp, expects to open its first full-service Vancouver branch in a first-floor, 5,890-square-foot space in the north tower in the first quarter of 2006.
