West Des Moines is emerging as the probable site of a large new office building for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, the home lending subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co., according to public officials and others who are familiar with the discussions.

No decision had been made and the company, which provides funding for about one out of every eight American homes that are financed each year, is still researching its options, said spokeswoman Debora Blume.

“There is a feeling that Wells Fargo is leaning toward us,” said West Des Moines Mayor Gene Meyer.

Loan demand created by new home purchases and by homeowners who want to refinance their mortgages has exploded in recent years as interest rates have fallen to their lowest levels in more than a generation.

That growth in lending activity has pushed Wells Fargo Home Mortgage past the capacity of building it constructed in West Des Moines in 2000 to help consolidate its operations. Today, in addition to the West Des Moines building, it has leased office space totaling about 300,000 square feet in six buildings scattered throughout Des Moines and its western suburbs.

The company announced in an interview with the Business Record last month that it was considering buying land and constructing a building somewhere in the western suburbs to save money and boost efficiency by bringing the 2,300 workers at those leased spaces together. The leases expire in about two or three years, Blume said.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage’s new building, if constructed, is expected to contain more than 500,000 square feet and house more than 2,000 workers.

Possible sites for the new building include vacant land near the corners of 60th Street and George C. Mills Civic Parkway and further north near the intersection of 60th Street and E.P. True Parkway, according to people familiar with the talks.

Those sites are being considered because they are close to the Jordan Creek Town Center, which will have enough restaurants and other service-oriented businesses to support a large office building. Jordan Creek will be the biggest mall in the state when it is completed in the fall of 2004.

Demand for Wells Fargo’s products and services have also led to a massive hiring campaign at the company. In an effort to fill 1,300 openings in Wells Fargo’s Greater Des Moines business units, which include Wells Fargo Bank Iowa and Wells Fargo Financial, West Fargo Home Mortgage hosted a job fair last month that drew more than 2,000 job seekers.

Blume said the company has hired 30 people as a result of the job fair and has extended offers of employment to another 30. About 600 people are “well into the process and are going through follow up interviews” or are being tested for jobs they have applied for. The company expects to take about two to three months to fill the 1,300 positions, she said.

Separately, renovation work at Wells Fargo Financial’s older building in downtown Des Moines is nearly complete, according to Patrick Corkrean, a spokesman at the company.

The work on the 170,000-square-foot building has allowed the company to fit more employees into the same amount of space, mostly as a result of incorporating modern office furniture that takes up less space and is more flexible.

The company plans to have about 845 employees working in the building, up from the 750 who were there prior to the renovation. The work also freed up space for a 15,000-square-foot conference and training center, Corkrean said.