With a flurry of dirt flying off a golden-clad shovel held by Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf, construction has symbolically begun on a $455 million campus in Texas expected to house thousands of employees for the San Francisco-based bank and marking the largest office project underway by dollar amount in the Lone Star State.

The long-awaited two-tower, 850,000-square-foot office campus in Irving, Texas, which is about 14 miles northwest of downtown Dallas, broke ground Tuesday. Once completed, Wells Fargo expects to consolidate more than 800,000 square feet of office space in 14 offices throughout Dallas-Fort Worth at the campus, Scharf said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

In the past five years, Wells Fargo has added about 1,200 jobs to the region, bringing its workforce in Dallas-Fort Worth to a total of 6,800 employees, with nearly all the jobs being in technology and risk management.

“Wells Fargo is proud of our long-term presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, and this new, state-of-the-art facility reaffirms our commitment to this market,” Scharf said. “We know the value of having our employees working alongside each other, and we’re excited to give them a collaborative environment that prioritizes wellness and sustainability.”

Construction of the new campus, which is expected to open by the end of 2025, comes at a time of uncertainty for the future of office space and the lending environment. Recently, Wells Fargo boosted its allowance for potential losses on loans, specifically citing office loans as a major factor in the higher allowance.

Wells Fargo executives declined to share information about who the project lender is for their new Dallas-area campus, telling CoStar News it is not information that has been made publicly available. Dallas-based KDC is the developer of the office project.

"This is a Texas-sized investment in the future of Las Colinas and Irving," Gov. Greg Abbott said, adding Wells Fargo's nearly half-million-dollar investment is the biggest office project underway in the state. "Interesting, Texas is home to the largest financial services workforce in the United States. What this project will do by its expansion is it will boost that No. 1 ranking even higher.”

The two-tower Irving campus is expected to be Wells Fargo's first net-positive energy campus, meaning it is expected to generate more energy than it consumes with rooftop solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations and native plants with minimal watering requirements. The campus is designed to target a LEED platinum environmental certification upon its completion, officials said.

Scharf told the audience that San Francisco remains the bank's home city, but Wells Fargo has a significant number of employees elsewhere, such as Dallas-Fort Worth, and he's thrilled to add to the bank's presence in the region. In offering Irving's biggest incentive package to date, city officials are ponying up about $31 million of economic incentives for Wells Fargo's campus. In exchange, the bank has agreed to employ a minimum of 4,000 workers at the campus.

The Wells Fargo campus includes well-being rooms, gyms with remotely led classes and proximity to nearby walking and bicycle trails, stand-up paddle board rentals, a cycling studio and four golf courses, officials said.

The office campus is designed to include a food hall with cooking stations, a dining hall overlooking Lake Carolyn, a barista-style coffee area and a library with a high-tech workshop space and employee lounge. The two office towers are expected to include a pedestrian bridge connecting the office space to a separate parking garage with 4,000 spaces for vehicles.

Wells Fargo's incentive package with Irving is the city's largest one to date, Irving-Las Colinas Chamber executives said, followed by incentive packages with Pioneer Natural Resources and McKesson — both Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in Irving.

Pioneer Natural Resources was offered nearly $6 million in city incentives to develop a campus of its own near the development site for Wells Fargo's proposed hub. McKesson was offered about $2 million of incentives from Irving but landed an even bigger offer through the Texas Enterprise Fund of $9.75 million.

Wells Fargo was offered about $5 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund, the state's so-called deal-closing fund, in addition to the city of Irving's incentives. Wells Fargo's campus is planned on 22 acres at 401 W. Las Colinas Blvd. at the northeast corner of West Las Colinas Boulevard and Promenade Parkway, one block south of West Northwest Highway.

"If you look at the project today, you get to see the puzzle pieces coming together — and each piece matters," Beth Bowman, president and CEO of the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce, told CoStar News. "Wells Fargo is an incredible piece to continuing the vision in bringing quality, vibrant development home to Las Colinas."

Las Colinas, a 12,000-acre, master-planned development in Irving built on what was once ranch land surrounding Lake Carolyn, has more employees than downtown Dallas. The Dallas suburb is known for being "the headquarters of headquarters" with more Fortune 500 headquarters per capita than any other city its size. In all, Irving is home to eight Fortune 500 companies and four Fortune 1000 companies.

The Wells Fargo hub is also in close proximity to the Exxon Mobil campus the energy giant plans to exit this year. Capital Commercial Investments, the Austin-based real estate investor that acquired the property from Exxon Mobil, has hired JLL to market the 379,014-square-foot office campus at 5959 Las Colinas Blvd. to bring in a new corporate tenant.

The Wells Fargo campus has been three years in the making, all of which went smoothly except for the pandemic, said KDC CEO Steve Van Amburgh, who is overseeing the development of Wells Fargo's campus.

"Had we not had the pandemic and all the uncertainty and what would happen, they hit the pause button and we paused right along with them, it would've happened faster," Van Amburgh said, adding normally, given the scope and size of the project, it would be a 12-to 18-month process. "This ended up being twice as long, with the pandemic creating a lot of travel restrictions and people were not getting together.

"They wanted to make certain the amount of space they built was the correct amount and so there was a lot of revalidations of square footages," he added. "We have had a fair amount of inflation, so the costs are higher than what we hoped for, but there's no assurance that prices are going to go down or up, so locking in now is a good thing. When you compare the cost of building this campus here with other places around the country, it's probably even a better bargain."

Those costs are tied to labor and construction materials, Van Amburgh said, adding that Mirasol Capital, which sold the land to Wells Fargo, kept the price steady for two years, which helped keep the deal intact. Mirasol Capital plans to build a mixed-use development adjacent to the Wells Fargo campus.

"A lot of people either postponed or hit the pause button and they haven't recommenced work [on office projects] and Wells Fargo was so committed that once they felt comfortable with it, they said, 'let's go,' which is a testimony to their CEO coming all the way from New York to greet the governor is a special day," Van Amburgh said.

The Wells Fargo development site's proximity to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail line and views of Lake Carolyn makes it appealing to employees, he said, adding the adjacency to Toyota Music Factory, the Irving Convention Center and the restaurants and retail surrounding the site only adds to the appeal.

Van Amburgh describes the campus as being designed to be "timeless, sustainable and organic,” with natural daylight coming into the workspace with dynamic glass to help manage the sunlight and use of regional construction materials.

Corgan is the project architect and designer. Kimley Horn is the landscape and civil engineer. Austin Commercial is the general contractor.