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Wells Fargo & Co. has significantly reduced its presence in downtown Winston-Salem, closing its data center on Fourth Street and leasing less space in the Wells Fargo Center.

During the third quarter, Wells Fargo has vacated at least 450,000 square feet across multiple buildings in the Winston-Salem Central Business District, according to a report released Wednesday by the Triad office of commercial real-estate company CBRE.

Besides vacating about 180,000 square feet in the 29-story Wells Fargo Center, the bank left its 90,000-square-foot West End Center annex on Fourth Street and the 179,000-square-foot Linden Center on Fourth Street, CBRE executive vice president Greg Wilson said Wednesday.

The status of the 379,000-square-foot West End Center data center, also on Fourth Street, remains uncertain in terms of when Wells Fargo may exit, Wilson said. Wells Fargo declined Wednesday to comment on the status of specific downtown locations.

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines and Mark Owens, president and chief executive of Greater Winston-Salem Inc. could not be immediately reached for comment on the vacant Wells Fargo office space.

IQ officials said in a statement that "The Innovation Quarter has no plans to lease or buy the Linden Center at this time."

Wilson said the 20-year original Wachovia lease on the three buildings ended in September. Wilson said the bank kept about 139,000 square feet in Wells Fargo Center.

Wells Fargo repeated Wednesday comments it made in July when asked about the status of its Winston-Salem office space.

“As we have shared before, we are on a multi-year journey to transform our company to become simpler and stronger,” the bank said in a statement. “We continue to bring employees in non-customer facing roles together and to improve and modernize our workspaces. This will strengthen our customer-centric culture, collaboration, strong risk management and innovation.”

The CBRE report listed the Triad’s office market having had more than 908,000 square feet of office space become vacant this year, what the group referred to as negative absorption.

The report lists the Winston-Salem Central Business District with a record-high office vacancy rate of 31.3%.

Michael Walden, a N.C. State economics professor, said Wells Fargo’s decision to vacate the downtown Winston-Salem office space represents more evidence “that remote work is here to stay.”

“Ordering workers to work at the office is not a long-run solution, as it alienates many workers. Re-purposing the structures is expensive, but may be the only long-run solution.

“Downtowns have not recovered to their pre-Covid status, and may never. The upside is remote work could bring economic growth to outlying regions.”

CBRE is handling marketing of the Wells Fargo Center for Oklahoma City real-estate developer Square Deal Capital. Square Deal has owned the building since 2018 and lists the Wells Fargo Center among the showcase properties in its portfolio.

A Square Deal Capital spokesman said Wednesday that “Wells Fargo has committed long term to the building and we’re happy to have them.”

The 29-story building — the largest in Winston-Salem — is listed with 546,020 of rentable square feet. Wilson said the building was about 87% occupied before the Wells Fargo downsizing and is now at close to 55%.

The bank has said it has about 2,320 Triad employees, who make up the bulk of its workforce in its 32-county Triad West region. The main Triad business unit is the wealth management division located in the center.

However, the bank has not provided a workforce update in several years.

Lots of vacant space

“The Greensboro/Winston-Salem office sector experienced a sharp rise in vacancy in the third quarter as the reimagining of traditional work environments caused corporations with a substantial presence locally to downsize their real estate footprints,” according to the CBRE report.

“Wells Fargo is the most recent example of this corporate trend,” along with Blue Cross Blue Shield N.C., Lincoln Financial Group and Mack Trucks as other businesses shrinking their office space in recent months.

The former BB&T Financial Center in downtown remains mostly vacant more than three years after Truist Financial Corp. announced in March 2020 it was leaving the building as part of downsizing into smaller office spaces in the local market.

Wilson said CBRE began marketing the former BB&T headquarters building in September after the Truist lease expired, and the building was placed into receivership in March.

“The Greensboro/Winston-Salem market has now had seven straight quarters of negative absorption,” the report said.

“Leasing activity, an indicator of demand and interest from potential tenants, continues to be dominated by tenants renewing or upgrading to smaller footprints upon relocation.”

On a positive note, the report said “prime buildings in the market continue to see healthy activity.”

The pending early 2025 move of HanesBrands’ corporate headquarters to the downtown Winston-Salem’s Park Building is the primary example.

According to the report, HanesBrands has signed a lease for 122,670 square feet, the top three floors in the 101 N. Cherry St. building. Truist — the current primary occupant — is retaining a smaller space.

Local elected officials project — based on conversations with HanesBrands officials — that the manufacturer’s downtown workforce could be in the 500 range.

The manufacturer has not provided a Forsyth workforce count since 2,400 in May 2021. Over the past 18 months, it has confirmed local reductions of 310 in January 2023, 250 in August 2023 and 159 in April.

Expected downsizing

There’s been local speculation for several months that Wells Fargo’s non-branch operations in Winston-Salem could be affected by an operational hub downsizing initiative.

Wells Fargo has been consolidating more business units into fewer hubs as a cost-cutting measure, and to be closer to potential talent pools. That includes shifting employees to downtown Charlotte, where the bank has its main East Coast operations.

The bank has consolidated operations into Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, and a $455 million regional hub under construction in Irving, Texas.

For example, the Oregonian reported that Wells Fargo’s global operations business is exiting locations in Hillsboro, Portland and Salem in 2025 as part of the infrastructure consolidation effort. The bank has more than 1,000 workers at the three sites, but it’s unclear how many of those people will lose their jobs.

Wells Fargo Center

The former Wachovia headquarters opened in 1995 at 100 N Main St., designed by noted architect Cesar Pelli. It cost $80 million to build.

Since Wells Fargo bought a collapsing Wachovia in October 2008, the building has been sold twice.

The first was to New York-based investors Mark Karasick and David Werner for $36 million.

In a Dec. 11, 2013, article in the Journal, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler Inc., a Houston real-estate firm working on behalf of Karasick and David Werner, said the bank had about 11 years left on its lease.

Wilson said all three Wells Fargo buildings were under the same lease terms that expired in September. The Linden and West End buildings have a different owner than Square Deal, Wilson said.

The second time was in October 2018 for $62 million to WFC Property LLC, an affiliate of Square Deal Capital that serves as the landlord.

Wait times of more than an hour cropped up at a number of Forsyth County polling stations on Thursday as a stretch of more than two weeks of early voting began in the lead-up to the General Election on Nov. 5.

By 1 p.m., nearly 300 people had cast ballots at the Rural Hall branch library, where a poll worker said that ordinarily only some 120 to 150 would have voted by then.

“Typically, Clemmons and Kernersville have really long waits,” said Jennifer O’Kelly, the chief judge at the polling place. “It must be the beautiful weather.”

The county has a web page that lists approximate wait times for voting at any of the 18 early-voting sites around the county. From early on, the site at Rural Hall jumped out as one of the busier sites.

By the middle of the afternoon, wait times of more than an hour were listed for both Kernersville polling stations, along with ones in Rural Hall, Walkertown, Mazie Woodruff Center, the Anderson Center at Winston-Salem State University and Polo Park.

On the other hand, the wait was very short at United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, which only became an early-voting site with this election.

“We had a line of people waiting for us early this morning when we opened,” said chief judge Robyn Swinton.

Contests on the ballot include U.S. President and House of Representatives seats, along with statewide contests for governor, lieutenant governor and other Council of State offices. Voters will choose House and Senate members for the N.C. General Assembly, along with Forsyth County commissioners and Winston-Salem City Council members.

Judicial contests for state Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals also fill the ballot, along with local judicial and court positions.

Voters will give a thumbs up or down to an amendment to the N.C. Constitution that limits voting to citizens.

Over at Mazie Woodruff Center on Lansing Drive, Aurora Dixon, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, and Ron Robinson, backing Vice President Kamala Harris, stood cordially beside each other in line late Thursday morning.

While the two voters disagreed over the merits of their candidates, both agreed on the importance of voting in every election.

Alannah Romano, holding her 6-month-old daughter Amelia at the back of the line in Rural Hall, declined to say who she was supporting, but called it her chance to “do my civic duty.”

Early voting will run from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays through Nov. 1. Early voting occurs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on two Saturdays of early voting, on Oct. 19 and Oct. 26, and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov. 2, which is also a Saturday but also the last day of early voting.

Early voting also takes place on two Sundays, Oct. 20 and Oct. 27, from 1 to 5 p.m. each day.

wyoung@wsjournal.com

336-727-7369

@wyoungWSJ

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James "Jay" Walter Manring

James “Jay” Walter Manring went home to his Lord and Savior surrounded by his family in prayer on Friday, October 18, 2024, in Winston-Salem, NC.

Jay lived his life full of love for God and his family. He was a beloved husband, father, Pop Pop, and a true and loyal friend. Jay will always be remembered for his larger-than-life personality and for being a man who lived life to the absolute fullest. Jay was a strong, kind, creative, determined soul who loved all that life had to offer.

Jay served Carolina Wood Floors for over 30 years across the Piedmont and was known as an excellent craftsman in the hardwood flooring industry and his personal hobbies- he gained much joy from working with his hands and teaching his crafts. Jay was enthusiastic about his work and took pride in ensuring absolute perfection in every project he touched. He loved good music, spending time playing with his grandchildren, gardening, doing home improvement projects, along with fishing, and playing golf. Jay was a NASCAR racing enthusiast and was “The” Grill Master. Most of all, Jay loved taking mountain and beach trips with his dearest wife and family.

Jay leaves behind a truly heartbroken family, who will always keep his memory alive, especially for his grandchildren- they will be reminded daily how much their Pop Pop loved them. Jay and his wife, Serena, devoted their lives to each other and to raising their beautiful family. He was the foundation of their family and his children will forever remember the qualities and values he exemplified. Serena was a dedicated, loving, and faithful wife to Jay for 39 years and a piece of her left this earth with him, but their hearts will always remain as one.

Jay was preceded in death by his mother, Elizabeth Manring; his father, Walter Manring; and his brother, Carlton Manring.

Left to cherish Jay’s memory are his loving wife and best friend for 42 years, Serena Manring; his son, Tyler Manring (Carlie Manring); his daughter, Chelsea Manring (Dalton Warfford); three grandchildren, Finley Manring, Rhett Warfford and Myko Manring; his siblings, Ronnie Manring (Debbie), Terry Manring (Kim), Wayne Manring (Betty), Fonda Moser (Dwight), Divers Moser, and Larry Branch; as well as many beloved nieces, nephews, cousins and beloved in-laws.

A memorial service will be held at Hayworth-Miller Lewisville Chapel on October 24, 2024, at 4:00 pm.