M&T Bank Corp. will have the capacity to add as many as 1,000 more employees in downtown Buffalo over time, now that it is reconfiguring its urban space to accommodate more workers.

Keith Belanger, the Buffalo-based bank's senior vice president for corporate services, said Wednesday that officials have been going "floor by floor" through the bank's six downtown buildings to reconfigure and refresh the 1 million square feet of space it already owns or leases in the city, where it currently employs about 4,000. That's part of a five-year, $100 million investment in upgrades and renovations at both existing and leased facilities.

As a result, he said, the bank has increased the density of its floors by about 20 percent, and can now handle almost 5,000 staffers. Among other steps, M&T gutted the former Hiscock & Barclay LLP space on the 11th floor of M&T Center to house 300 employees, while reorganizing half of the 21 floors at One M&T Plaza.

"It means we're going to add 1,000 people downtown as we grow," he said.