One of Charlotte’s biggest jobs announcements of the year is starting to look a lot more real.

When Japanese banking giant SMBC Group announced in April that it would establish its second U.S. headquarters in Charlotte and eventually create 2,000 jobs, the numbers alone made it a massive economic development win.

Now we’re starting to see what that expansion will actually look like.

SMBC has officially signed a lease for nearly 200,000 square feet at 301 South College Street in Uptown, the 42-story tower formerly known as One Wells Fargo Center. The first employees could begin moving into the space as early as this fall.

That gives Charlotte something more concrete than a future promise. SMBC now has the building, the jobs are being posted and the company is beginning the process of building one of its most important U.S. operations right here in the city.

The jobs are already starting to show up.

Charlotte Business Journal reported in May that SMBC already had more than 70 Charlotte positions posted, with the company initially focusing heavily on areas such as technology and cybersecurity.

Those aren't expected to be the only jobs coming.

SMBC's Charlotte operation is expected to eventually include a mix of executive leadership, middle management, associate and analyst positions. Corporate and investment banking roles are also expected to become part of the local hiring mix as the operation grows.

Current Charlotte openings on SMBC's careers site show just how broad that footprint could become, with positions touching risk, compliance, data, technology, operations and other parts of the bank.

See current SMBC job openings →

And the salaries are a big part of this story.

The jobs tied to the expansion are expected to pay an average of roughly $165,000 per year, nearly twice Mecklenburg County's overall average wage.

That makes this different from simply adding 2,000 more jobs to the region.

Charlotte is potentially adding thousands of high-paying positions in fields where it already has a deep talent base, including banking, risk, technology, data and financial operations.

That's an important distinction.

SMBC is headquartered in Tokyo and operates across nearly 40 countries. Its Charlotte expansion gives the city another major global financial institution alongside the enormous banking ecosystem already built around Bank of America, Truist and Wells Fargo.

It also arrives while more financial companies are placing major bets on Charlotte.

JPMorganChase is planning a new SouthPark corporate office that will eventually accommodate about 1,000 employees, including 400 new jobs. Investment management firm Capital Group is also expanding in Charlotte.

Altogether, Charlotte Business Journal reported in July that seven financial companies had committed to bringing more than 4,100 jobs to the Charlotte area.

SMBC represents nearly half of that total by itself.

There's another Charlotte story happening here, too: Uptown.

SMBC's decision to take such a large block of office space comes at an important time for the center city.

301 South College was once closely associated with Wells Fargo, which vacated a significant amount of space as Charlotte's office market adjusted to post-pandemic work patterns.

Now SMBC is moving into part of that space.

Axios Charlotte recently pointed to SMBC's lease, along with Capital Group's move into Bank of America Corporate Center, as part of renewed leasing momentum in Uptown.

So the impact isn't limited to employment.

Thousands of additional workers coming into Uptown over the next several years could mean more daytime traffic for restaurants and retailers, more demand for apartments and housing across the region and more activity in a part of Charlotte that has spent the last several years figuring out what its post-pandemic future looks like.

That's where this story could get even more interesting.

Charlotte has spent decades building its reputation as America's second-largest banking center. Landing SMBC reinforces that position, but what happens next could say even more about where the city's financial sector is headed.

For now, SMBC has the Uptown space, hiring is underway and the first workers could be moving into 301 South College this fall.

The 2,000-job promise is still a multi-year buildout.

But this one is officially starting to take shape.

Want to work there? You can browse SMBC's current openings and filter for Charlotte positions on the company's careers site.

Browse SMBC careers →