Bank of America's move leaves more Wilmington office space empty

For decades of bankers who issued and serviced credit cards for MBNA and, later, for Bank of America, Wilmington's Bracebridge complex was a spacious mothership. 

By next March, those employees will work in tighter quarters after Bank of America moves out of two of the three Bracebridge buildings, leaving vacant nearly half a million square feet of commercial space in a city that already struggles with too many empty offices.

It is the latest Wilmington banking behemoth to shrink its footprint in the city. It also comes after Bank of America sold the buildings, called Bracebridge I and III, last summer to a Texas real estate investment company.

The $240 billion bank is leasing the space back until March 31 to give affected employees time to move into its last Wilmington property, Bracebridge II, or to offices in Newark or Christiana, Bank of America spokesman Trevor Koenig said.

There will be no layoffs associated with the move, he said, while stressing that the bank is committed to Delaware. 

"This decision was part of Bank of America’s ongoing efforts to simplify its business by optimizing space and reducing excess capacity," he said in an email.

Bank of America doesn't disclose local employment figures, though reports from last year placed its jobs number at about 1,200 for Wilmington and 7,000 statewide. Its Bracebridge offices at the time were reported to be half empty. 

Built as four primary buildings in the mid-1990s, Bracebridge's grandeur reflected surging MBNA revenues amid a wave of credit card demand.

The buildings, connected by skybridges, are clustered northeast of Rodney Square on King and French streets.

In the early 2000s, MBNA employed more than 10,000 workers in Delaware, making it the state's largest private sector employer.

Yet the pressures of Wall Street bore down on the company in subsequent years, forcing it to liquidate trophies such as corporate jets, yachts, and prized artworks, and place on hold further construction in Wilmington.  

By 2005, the bank's run as a publicly traded company ended when Bank of America purchased it for $36 billion. 

Seven years later, the bank donated one of its four downtown office buildings — the 282,000-square-foot Bracebridge IV — to the Longwood Foundation. Today, that building houses charter schools.

Another office building and parking lot, which make up the entire block between Ninth and 10th streets and French and Walnut streets, were sold to the state in 2007 for $13 million.

Wilmington now desirable destination for office space, but dark clouds loom

Displaced Rodney Square bus riders get stops without shelters, benches

What it means for Delaware

Bracebridge's Texas buyer, Capital Commercial Investments, has not publicly announced its plans for the buildings. Officials at the real estate company did not reply to requests to comment for this story. 

Some real estate experts believe the soon-to-be-vacant buildings should be carved up into segments to accommodate smaller, nimbler companies — such as those in Wilmington's growing sector of online money lenders.

Wilmington commercial real estate broker Rick Kingery disagrees.

He said there are only a handful of modern office buildings on the market today in the Mid-Atlantic with a half million square feet of vacant space. Therefore, any large business seeking out a new headquarters will have to consider Wilmington, he said.  

That makes for an enticing opportunity for the city to land a new big anchor employer, he said. 

"If you look regionally at how many 500,000 square feet opportunities there are, you can count them on one hand," said Kingery, a broker with Colliers International.

A competing real estate brokerage firm, Newmark Knight Frank, said more than one quarter of Wilmington's highest quality office space will become vacant as a result of Bank of America's move from Bracebridge, plus Capital One's departure from 145,000 square feet of offices.

Newmark Knight Frank Senior Managing Director Wills Elliman said the vacancies will be difficult for the market, in general, but the new Bracebridge owner should be able to "be aggressive with rental rates."

Yet, some companies aren't enticed even by Wilmington's relatively low rents.

The growing financial technology lender, Marlette Funding, struggles to recruit programmers to its offices on U.S. 202, just north of the city. 

Frank Borchert, the company's general counsel, described the challenge to a group of fintech experts attending a New Castle Chamber of Commerce event on Tuesday.

Many software engineers the company seeks are Philadelphia based, he said, and they want to be able to commute by bus or train. Asked then why Marlette doesn't relocate into Wilmington near its train station, which is serviced by SEPTA trains, he said the company has considered such a move.

"We have a balance and a lot of our folks also drive and we are on 202 just off of 95," Borchert said. "We would be willing to run a van to the train station."

Earlier this year, Marlette's CEO Jeffrey Meiler said the city's income tax also was a factor.

Asked why the company isn't in Wilmington, he said, "Do you know where the tax line is?

"It's right down the street here. We're about 40 yards from it." 

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.