Fifth Third Bancorp isn't wasting any time with expansion plans after closing on its $10.9 billion buyout of Comerica this week and has signed dozens of leases for new branches to add to its sprawling real estate portfolio.
The combined bank, now the ninth-largest in the U.S. with about $294 billion in assets, has leased space for 50 new retail branch locations in Texas, with more than two dozen of them being in what was once Comerica's headquarters in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
The combined bank will have its headquarters in Cincinnati and Fifth Third is evaluating its real estate portfolio, with North Texas expected to remain a major hub for the bank for the foreseeable future.
For now, the combined entity expects to keep its office space totaling more than 220,000 square feet at its namesake Comerica Bank Tower in downtown Dallas and about 100,000 square feet in an office building in Frisco, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas, even as it aggressively expands its U.S. footprint.
"We absolutely intend to be in both Dallas and Frisco in a meaningful way with corporate offices in both cities," North Texas Market President Brian Enzler told CoStar News in an interview.
"We are evaluating our real estate footprint to make sure it best represents how we should be going to market to grow the business for the long term and achieve sustainable profitability," Enzler said. "There's always potential for change."
And, for the foreseeable future, the Comerica logo on Comerica Bank Tower, as well as the bank's signs at branches will remain until the third quarter. Comerica's retail branches are expected to be converted to Fifth Third's branding by Labor Day.
The combined entity estimates there are about 350 workers that work out of each North Texas office. It's unclear if those estimates include a workforce reduction planned by Comerica to cut 184 workers from roles tied to its office hub in Frisco that is expected to go into effect in March.
Enzler declined to comment, saying in North Texas his primary focus is to grow its business and hire for the "right customer-facing and customer-support roles" for the bank. The Dallas-Fort Worth region is full of "high-quality financial oriented talent," Enzler said.
"Fifth Third bought Comerica for its geographic presence and its middle-market capabilities and a number of other attractive features in our banking and commercial areas," said Enzler, who joined Comerica last April prior to the Fifth Third acquisition.
"We have become a financial center in the United States in a way that when Comerica moved its headquarters to Dallas in 2007, you couldn't have said at that time," Enzler said. "We've been supporting financial services in this area for many decades, and, in some ways, you could call us an early adopter."
Fifth Third's acquisition of Comerica comes as the banking industry continues to consolidate. Thousands of banks have exited the business in the past two decades as regulations, a push for efficiency and investment in technology hit the businesses. Currently, there's more than 4,000 banks operating in the industry.
For Fifth Third, the acquisition of Comerica is expected to bring an influx of investment in building the bank's new branch presence and branding, as well as adding to its client-facing salesforce.
In Texas, Fifth Third has plans to invest $600 million to boost market share in Dallas, Houston and Austin with the addition of 150 or more new branches by 2029.
By 2030, Fifth Third plans to have about 1,750 bank branches with over half of them being located in Arizona, California, Texas and the Southeast United States.