A sign recently installed outside one of Red Bank’s most prominent business addresses says there’s space “for lease” in the building, now home to a single tenant: Wells Fargo Bank.

What’s Going On Here?

According to commercial real estate broker Suzanne Macnow, of CBRE, Wells Fargo is not moving out, but “downsizing and giving back the lower level and second floor” at at 303 Broad Street.

“They will consolidate their offices onto the first floor and keep the bank branch,” she told redbankgreen Wednesday. That frees up 9,500 square feet on the lower level and 7,910 square feet on the second floor, Macnow said.

The 26,000-square-foot building, which sits on a 3.5-acre property at the corner of East Bergen Place, is owned by Grace Acquisitions NJ LLC, in Lakewood. The building was erected as a banking operation in 1965 and has been home to a succession of industry players since then.

Wells Fargo has leased the property since 2004.

The bank won borough planning board approval in March, 2021, for a new plan to light the sprawling site, which wraps around three houses on East Bergen Place. The changes were needed in order to meet state regulations for security lighting, a manager testified.

At the time, there was buzz about the possibility that the property might someday become a new home to the municipal government, replacing 90 Monmouth Street as borough hall. As reported by redbankgreen, the Redevelopment Agency had authorized an architect to “do a concept design” to see if the site could accommodate  borough offices, the police department and municipal court.

But the idea, like everything else the agency was working on, was shelved when the borough council dissolved the agency last April.

(Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

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