Wells Fargo is moving to grab a larger share of the commercial banking market as Santa Clarita continues to expand its population of businesses. The Wells California Business Banking group has opened a business banking office in the city, moving the base of operations serving Santa Clarita closer to the core of activity. “We have watched more and more businesses move into the Santa Clarita marketplace, and we find a lot more of our business opportunity is occurring in that marketplace,” said Roc Caldarone, CBB regional manager for the San Fernando Valley, Pacific Coast and Santa Clarita regions. The new Wells office opens with six employees including commercial loan officers and business deposit consultants. The office targets businesses in the $2 million to $20 million range, which officials say can be best served by some of the products Wells offers. “One of our customers had warehouses located in several different areas of the county with inventory all over the place,” said Caldarone. “We were able to help him finance a new, larger building in Santa Clarita that allowed him to consolidate these facilities and you can imagine the savings in time, logistics and money.” Santa Clarita’s growth has made the area especially attractive to banks, particularly in comparison to business growth in the San Fernando Valley and other parts of Los Angeles County. The region is expected to add 4,300 to 5,100 jobs per year between 2006 and 2010, a growth rate averaging 4.6 percent to 5.7 percent compared to 0.6 percent to 0.7 percent for the rest of L.A. county. By 2010, Santa Clarita could have the largest concentration of businesses in Southern California, according to some estimates. But that growth potential has not gone unnoticed. In the past year, at least four banks have either started up or opened new branches in the Santa Clarita Valley, most catering to businesses in the small to mid-size range. Wells officials acknowledge that the competition has grown fierce in the area, but they say that the company is well equipped to stand out. The bank is already familiar with the region the business bank was first established in the San Fernando Valley in 1996 and has already been providing services to Santa Clarita businesses through that office. At the same time, officials said, the Wells portfolio of services will also help it to compete. “Wells has over 84 business lines available,” said Caldarone. “We also see ourselves as financial consultants. We are also the entry point in helping clients satisfy other banking needs too. Think of the convenience of being able to satisfy your personal and business banking needs with one company,” Caldarone added. “We think that will also separate us from the competition.”