Rumors about a potential sale of an equity stake in Wells Fargo’s San Francisco headquarters arose last month, and TRD can now confirm those rumors are true: JLL has listed a 49 percent share in 333 Market Street for an undisclosed price.
JLL did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the sale, but the investment summary for the listing shows that Columbia Property Trust has exclusively engaged the brokerage to sell almost all of its 55 percent stake in the building. Allianz Real Estate of America, the other owner of the building, does not appear to be selling its interest.
Since 2018, Wells Fargo has occupied the entire 620,000-square-foot property, which has a 33-story tower and a five-story annex, and signed the biggest renewal of the pandemic when it committed to stay in the Financial District building until April 2033. It is keeping its footprint at 333 Market while giving up more than 140,000 square feet it has occupied at 45 Fremont Street since 2003. It also planned to sell a 13-story office building it owns and occupies at 550 California Street this summer, but pulled it off the market a few months later when it didn’t get offers close to the $160 million asking price.
“We are committed to our San Francisco-based employees,” the bank said in a statement when it renewed the 333 Market lease in June. “We will continue to have a major employee presence in San Francisco, but we have more real estate than we need to support these employees. San Francisco remains the location of our company’s headquarters.”
None of the employees remaining in those headquarters are part of the bank’s 17-member senior leadership team, Wells Fargo confirmed to the San Francisco Business Times. In its listing notes, JLL said the office space served as a “mission critical facility” for the financial institution, which began in San Francisco in 1852. JLL called the bank “committed” to its office space, and said it had made “significant capital investment” into the building, which was built in 1979 and renovated in 2007.
The fully occupied building and long-term lease provide investors with “protected cash yields,” according to the listing notes. They also stand in stark contrast to the rest of downtown San Francisco, which is seeing its highest-ever office vacancy rates and faces 1,300 lease expirations on the horizon over the next two years.
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