In April, following Fifth Third’s acquisition of Comerica, Fifth Third opened the location as a branch and rechristened it with its own signage at an event that featured Frisco political and business leaders as well as the Dallas Stars’ mascot.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Less than six months after completing its $11 billion acquisition of Comerica, Fifth Third Bank is implementing a major round of layoffs in Frisco, where Comerica previously operated a northern D-FW Business and Innovation hub some 25 miles from its downtown Dallas headquarters.
Fifth Third recently notified 115 employees at the location, at 17 Cowboys Way in Frisco’s The Star district, that they’ll lose their jobs beginning in September, according to a WARN notice filed last week. The letter to the Texas Workforce Commission mentioned that the affected employees are not unionized and that some will be terminated beginning Sept. 11, while others will lose their jobs in late January.
“Decisions like these are never easy,” Fifth Third said in a statement provided to The Dallas Morning News, “but position us to deliver more value for our customers, communities, and shareholders. We’re committed to treating every impacted colleague with respect and providing support throughout the transition.”
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The statement also emphasized Fifth Third’s emphasis on Texas following the acquisition, which it called one of the bank’s most important growth markets.
In May, Fifth Third also named Dallas as its Texas regional headquarters “and reaffirmed plans to open 150 new branches across Dallas, Houston and Austin by 2029” — a branch expansion plan the bank said amounts to “a $700 million investment that will position Fifth Third among the top four banks by branch presence in each of those markets.”
The WARN letter did not specify which roles were being cut, and representatives for Fifth Third did not answer that question when it was posed by The News. The latest layoff notice at the location followed another notice from Comerica, issued in January before the merger deal was finalized, that indicated 184 jobs were being cut beginning in March.
It was unclear how many employees are working out of the Frisco site, which opened as a Comerica hub with 300 workers just two years ago. In April, following Fifth Third’s acquisition of Comerica, Fifth Third opened the location as a branch and rechristened it with its own signage at an event that featured Frisco political and business leaders as well as the Dallas Stars’ mascot.
In its statement to The News on Wednesday, the bank also called North Texas “one of five major employment hubs for the new Fifth Third” and said it expects its D-FW workforce to grow over time.
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Cincinnati-based Fifth Third’s acquisition of Comerica — a bank that moved its headquarters from Detroit to downtown Dallas in 2007 and instantly became one of the city’s most notable companies — was announced in October and closed in early February following shareholder votes and regulatory approval. The all-stock deal, valued at just under $11 billion, marked one of the most significant banking industry consolidations in recent American history and positioned Fifth Third as the country’s ninth largest bank by assets while also establishing it as a new financial player in Texas and California, major markets where Comerica had a large presence but Fifth Third did not.
“It was all hands on deck,” Comerica Chief Legal Officer Von Hays previously told The Texas Lawbook, referring to the behind the scenes work orchestrating the deal. “This transaction was a round-the-clock exercise.”
The acquisition also raised major questions for Comerica’s existing North Texas-based workforce and real estate footprint, including the bank’s highly visible downtown Dallas headquarters. The downtown skyscraper currently known as Comerica Bank Tower, which ranks among the metro area’s tallest buildings, was renamed for that company upon its relocation into North Texas and is owned by Toronto-based Slate Asset Management. That firm and Dallas-based Stream Realty, the property manager, have introduced a redevelopment plan that would transform the building into a mixed-use space, The News previously reported.
In January, Fifth Third said in a statement it was “evaluating our real estate footprint” and expected some changes, although its plans for the lease at Comerica Bank Tower remained hazy. Then, in May, Fifth Third announced it would be leaving the downtown site after all — vacating its lease within 90 days — and establishing a new regional headquarters in Preston Center.
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Earlier this week, that move became visible, when workers began removing the letters from Comerica’s namesake downtown tower.