The site of a former Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom is slated to become home to a new Wells Fargo bank.

Wells Fargo & Co., the San Francisco-based financial services giant whose website shows it has nearly a dozen bank locations in the Colorado Springs area, intends to demolish the Old Chicago restaurant building at 4110 N. Academy Blvd. on the Springs’ north side, according to a proposal recently submitted to city government planners.

In its place, Wells Fargo says it would construct a new full-service branch that will open in two years.

The Old Chicago was shuttered in April 2023 after being open for nearly 30 years. The 12,903-square-foot building, prominently located on the northwest corner of Academy and Austin Bluffs Parkway, also had been home to other restaurants before Old Chicago took over the property.

Wells Fargo’s proposal that was submitted to city planners shows a 3,500-square-foot bank, with a drive-thru and ATM, to be built on the nearly 1-acre site.

“Branches continue to play an important role in the way we serve our customers in combination with our mobile app, online website and ATMs,” Wells Fargo said via email in response to questions about the property from The Gazette.

“We are actively investing in our branch network by opening new locations and refurbishing our entire network,” the email said. “The current building in Colorado Springs will be torn down so that we can construct a modern, inviting facility for our valued customers, which will open in 2026.”

Other details about Wells Fargo’s plans, however, weren’t known.

Wells Fargo didn’t respond to questions about what might happen to its existing branch at 4151 N. Academy, across the street from Old Chicago. That building, constructed in 1978, is slightly smaller at 3,058 square feet than what’s being proposed for the Old Chicago site, El Paso County land records show.

Wells Fargo also has another branch about 1½ miles farther north at 5190 N. Academy.

It’s also unknown whether Wells Fargo has contracted to buy or lease the Old Chicago property.

A representative for a Texas-based limited partnership that purchased the Old Chicago building in February 2024 couldn’t be reached for comment. That group paid $3.2 million for the Old Chicago property, land records show.