St. Cloud Chamber President Responds to Capital One Closing
ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- We learned this week that Capital One will no longer have a physical presence in downtown St. Cloud.
A company spokeswoman tells WJON News they announced the decision on Monday that a majority of its associates will shift to work remotely and close the St. Cloud building and cafe.
St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce President Julie Lunning calls the announcement 'surprising". But, she says the good news is the 600 local employees will still be working in the community. She says the staff at the cafe will hopefully transition to new roles.
I stopped in this morning to talk to the staff at the cafe. Capital One is working with them to get them other positions within Capital One.
Lunning says the reality is most of the staff haven't been downtown much since the beginning of the pandemic, so the economic impact on downtown won't be much.
A majority were in that remote situation, some were hybrid. We saw activity in the building but not like we did when there were 860 employees downtown. I don't think we'll see much of an impact, compared to the past few years.
Lunning says she's been told Capital One wants to remain engaged in the community through volunteerism and philanthropy.
She says the Chamber, Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation, and the city will meet soon to discuss a strategy for the building.
A Capital One spokeswoman says they were leasing the office space, to the future plans for the building will depend on its owner.
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