CHUCK LIDDY - chuck.liddy@newsobserver.com
Donny Hinton (left) and Deryk Robison carry the "v" from the Wachovia sign as workmen remove the letters from the side of a downtown Raleigh office building Monday, Sept. 26, 2011.
The signs they are a-changin’.
It’s nearly crunch time for Wachovia’s 317 branches across North Carolina, which are morphing into Wells Fargo branches in mid-October. The height of that transformation locally is taking place this week and next atop one of downtown Raleigh’s tallest buildings – the 30-story Wachovia Capitol Center.
So how many workers does it take to dismantle the two Wachovia signs at the top of the 380-foot-high building and replace them with the red-and-gold Wells Fargo logo? Eight, including at least one at ground level manning the barriers put up to keep pedestrians out of harm’s way.
“Every now and then the public feels safety barriers are things you’re supposed to walk under,” said Jim Adinolfecq, Adinolfe, co-owner and CEO of Atlas Sign Industries, the company hired to make the switcheroo. “You’d be surprised. That happens a lot.”
Atlas – which manufactures, erects and maintains signs – is based in West Palm Beach, Fla., but has an office in Raleigh and a manufacturing facility in Concord that employs 162 workers. Atlas previously handled the Wachovia-to-Wells-Fargo sign switch at 96 sites in Florida, and is in the midst of doing the same at 100 sites within a 100-mile radius of Raleigh.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia at the end of 2008 and for more than two years has been switching its branches to the Wells Fargo brand. North Carolina, which was home base for Charlotte-based Wachovia, is the last state to convert. Wells Fargo/Wachovia has more branches than any other bank – 9,000-plus in 39 states plus Washington, D.C.
