REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS FOR WELLS FARGO : Tower in Koll Center Planned

Wells Fargo Bank gave the Koll Co. a boost when it said it would move into a planned 16-story building just north of the San Diego Freeway in Koll Center Irvine.

The bank signed a 15-year lease for nearly $30 million, and the building will now be called Wells Fargo Tower.

That will make Koll’s lenders happy, since they can be assured of one large tenant even before the $85-million building has been built. Construction starts this month.

The bank took 71,000 square feet of space on floors 7 through 9.

The bank will consolidate its regional offices--now in the Irvine Co.’s Newport

Center--and other operations near John Wayne Airport. Altogether, nearly 300 employees will move.

The building--designed by local architects Langdon Wilson Mumper--will be the fourth tower Koll has constructed in the business center, which extends on both sides of the freeway. The giant Newport Beach-based developer plans to build three more office towers, one more low-rise office building and a third hotel.

Koll’s partners on the new tower--scheduled for completion in April, 1990--are Hart Advisors Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and Columbia Savings & Loan Assn. in Beverly Hills.