See inside: Wells Fargo opens food hall for its 15,000 Uptown employees
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Wells Fargo has opened a 20,000-square-foot, employees-only food hall on the first floor of its 550 S. Tryon building.
Why it matters: Wells Fargo can undeniably impact center city's vibrancy if it can entice its 15,000 Uptown workers back to the office — which could then influence other companies to refill the all-too-many barren skyscrapers.
- Also, we are nosey and like to see inside other people's workplaces.
The food hall has been open for two weeks and serves lunch and breakfast, starting at 7:30am. During peak times, up to 11 orders are submitted per minute, says Minnette Curl, who oversees the bank's food service on the East Coast and London.
- The fare is below market rate, so it's cheaper than most nearby restaurants.
- A Milkbread is being built across the street.
Zoom out: Wells Fargo, a San Francisco-based bank with its largest employee base in Charlotte, is on year two of a five-year, $500 million plan to upgrade its Charlotte assets.
- The bank transformed about 100,000 square feet at South Tryon, the martini glass-shaped building formerly called the Duke Energy Center, into employee amenity space. Around 6,000 employees are assigned to the tower.
- "We're truly trying to set a new standard for employee-centric design," says Valerie Goble, executive director of design and construction.
- Wells Fargo requires employees to show up in person at least three days a week. It employs 27,000 people in the Charlotte region.
Go deeper: Wells Fargo makes over some of Uptown's highest floors
Zoom in: The hall is an open kitchen design with seven areas, focused on different foods. Stations include a guest restaurant space, chef demonstrations with classes broadcast on Wells Fargo's internal network, and the in-house baker.
- Workers can pre-order their grub on the Eatify app.
- The hall has outlets, WiFi and about 250 seats.
- Wells Fargo contracts the food service with Compass Group, a Charlotte-based company that also fuels UNC Charlotte students.
- Although you need a badge to enter the food hall, a coffee stand directly outside the entrance is open to all. Wells Fargo uses Haerfest Coffee, a local roaster that employs people with disabilities.
Between the lines: Previously the area was back-of-house space for locker rooms and building management.
- Construction management manager Emily van Zyl said the city's new unified development ordinance loosened restrictions to promote activating first-floor space in Uptown, which made the project easier to achieve.
