Wells Fargo Looks at Huge Expansion in West Des Moines

There's big news for Wells Fargo & Co., and that big news is the possibility of a huge office expansion in West Des Moines, which could mean an additional 2,000 jobs.

The company is the largest employer in the Des Moines area and the largest bank in the United States, based on stock market value.

Now Wells Fargo is looking at getting even bigger. The company is mulling over whether to construct a 239,000-square-foot office building that would increase its total space in the region by 8 percent, according to the Des Moines Register.

Wells Fargo employs 13,000 people in the Des Moines metro area, where its residential mortgage business is based.

The company maintains 3.1 million square feet of office and administrative space in the area.

Wells Fargo has asked West Des Moines to rezone land at its 187-acre Jordan Creek campus to facilitate the construction, the Register reported.

Office structures typically allocate from 100 to 200 square feet of space per worker, the Register reported, a rule of thumb which equates to between 1,195 and 2,390 jobs at the planned expansion.

“No decisions have been made yet,” Wells Fargo spokeswoman Angela Kaipust told the paper. “We’re in an exploratory stage where we’re talking with the city about the possibility of an expansion.”