While the normies pay for coffee and ask for the bathroom code at Capital One Cafe, the wealthy can walk into JPMorgan Chase’s newest branch in downtown San Francisco for complimentary drinks, small-batch desserts, and a luxurious, lounge-like ambiance.
JPMorgan’s flagship financial center opened Wednesday at 111 Pine St., designed “with the affluent client in mind.” The space had been the headquarters of First Republic Bank, which JPMorgan acquired during last year’s banking crisis.
First Republic catered to high-net-worth individuals with services like jumbo mortgages and personal touches like fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and distinctive forest-green umbrellas.
The new branch is meant to revive some of that allure and grab those wealthy customers and their considerable deposits. Complimentary J.P. Morgan umbrellas will be available at the location, but cookies won’t.
“This is a new chapter in the evolution of banking,” said Peter Kelley, a JP Morgan executive. “We could’ve retreated from downtown, but we decided to say, ‘Hey, we’re here.’”
The new JPMorgan center provides concierge services and meeting spaces adorned with artwork from the bank’s collection, specifically for clients with $750,000 or more in deposits and investments. Those clients receive preferred savings rates and complimentary wealth planning, the bank said.
For those with more than $5 million in investable assets, the branch will provide “holistic” services across banking, lending, planning, and investing.
Ryan MacDonald, a managing director at Chase who flew from New York to San Francisco for the grand opening, said the branch is designed to make clients feel like they’re walking into “a high-end hotel or a beautiful restaurant.”
The San Francisco center — along with a sister location that opened this week in New York — is part of JPMorgan’s strategy to expand the number of branches specifically tailored to wealthy clients. The firm expects to open more than 30 such branches by the end of 2026, including at least one more in San Francisco and a few in the wider Bay Area.
“Through these financial centers, we’ll test a differentiated, personalized approach across banking, lending, and wealth,” said Jennifer Roberts, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking.
Another bank opened downtown this year in an effort to capture the region’s high-net-worth clientele following the banking crisis. Sacramento-based Five Star Bank’s first branch in San Francisco offers what it describes as white-glove concierge services.
Meanwhile, regular bank branches have been closing in record numbers across the city. JPMorgan Chase shuttered seven First Republic Bank branches when it absorbed the regional company last year. U.S. Bank and Union Bank, which merged in December, closed five branches and opened one.