The U.S. investment bank is poised to splash out for office space on the city's most exclusive thoroughfare. The move underscores its ambitions as a wealth manager.
Goldman Sachs plans to move into Bahnhofstrasse 3 in Zurich in 2024, a spokesman for the New York-based bank confirmed to finews.asia. It will leave a nondescript office it has maintained on nearby Claridenstrasse for years in favor of three floors on the tony banking and luxury shopping street.
The move puts Goldman Sachs at eye level with Switzerland's traditional private banks like Pictet, which has spent the last two years refurbishing the 105-year-old «Leuenhof» for business. Bahnhofstrasse signals the U.S. firm's ambitions in wealth management, where it is putting considerable resources including in Switzerland.
Touching Up
The U.S. bank's move is planned to coincide with 50 years in Switzerland, Dominique Wohnlich, CEO of the Swiss bank, told finews.com. «The decision for Bahnhofstrasse represents a commitment to Switzerland and our growth ambitions in wealth management for private and institutional clients, in investment banking, and in securities business,» he said.
Goldman is embarking on a renovation of the building, which was built in the late 19th century, including the addition of two floors in a steel and glass construction (see visualization below). The redo, overseen by architects Studio Maerki and EBP, will also lower the building's slightly raised entrance to street level.
Seat Of Trading
The address is both prestigious as well as historical: the building is owned by a foundation a devoted to social causes, culture, and science, but has long been deeply entrenched in Switzerland's financial center. In the late 19th century, it housed the Swiss stock exchange – though at the time Geneva was the alpine nation's main trading venue.
Later, Bahnhofstrasse 3 was home to Sparkasse Zurich, a traditional savings-and-loan founded in 1805 as a non-profit organization (its foundation capital was ten guilders and 21 shillings).
Ambitious Goals
The lender's aim was to help target clientele like daytime laborers, widows, single parents, and other economically disadvantaged city-dwellers with savings and interest. Sparkasse Zurich, which also dispersed piggy-banks in schools to encourage children to save, was bought by Zurich's cantonal bank (at home on Bahnhofstrasse 9) in 1990.
Goldman plans to move its roughly 1oo employees as well as new recruits into the prestigious office space. The bank currently employs roughly 100 people in Zurich and Geneva for wealth as well as asset management, and another 30 in investment banking and trading.
