Bank of America Corp. plans to sell and lease back the Hearst Tower, a 46-story fixture on Charlotte's skyline, and other properties as it works to streamline operations and expenses under a wide-ranging efficiency initiative, the bank said Wednesday.

The Charlotte-based lender also is selling the Fifth Third Center uptown and 222 Broadway in New York, which it inherited when it acquired Merrill Lynch in 2009. The moves are part of Chief Executive Brian Moynihan's Project New BAC, which has included the sale of non-core businesses, job cuts and management changes in an effort to slim down the nation's second-largest bank by assets.

Moynihan has said the bank would eliminate branches and shed "tens of millions" of unused square feet of office space around the world as part of the program.

He aims to slash $5 billion in annual expenses in the bank's consumer operations by the end of 2013 - part of a push to boost profits and investor confidence amid continued mortgage-related troubles and economic uncertainty.

"Real estate ownership is not a core business for Bank of America; therefore we are currently reviewing our portfolio and may make the decision to sell our ownership interest in certain properties," bank spokeswoman Kelli Raulerson said Wednesday.

"After the sale, we will continue to lease space in these properties, and there will be no impact to employees."

She declined to say whether the bank has lined up buyers for the properties. CBRE Group Inc. is handling the sale in partnership with Merrill Lynch, sources said.

Bank of America still owns its headquarters building, the 60-story Bank of America Corporate Center, at Trade and Tryon streets uptown. That tower and One Bryant Park, the bank's base in New York, are not part of the bank's review, Raulerson said.

The Hearst Tower, which opened in 2002 on North Tryon Street, is one of Charlotte's tallest buildings and features a three-story trading floor that's one of the largest in North America. The nearby Fifth Third Center, named for regional competitor Fifth Third Bank, one of the building's largest tenants, stands 30 stories tall.

Local real estate professionals say the buildings are high-quality, visible properties that could attract interest from national institutional investors, such as life insurance companies.

"They are extraordinary assets, very close to The Square, well-positioned to the transit line, and prominent in terms of features and presence on the skyline," said Ned Curran, president and CEO of developer The Bissell Cos. "I think they should be appealing to the general marketplace."

As for what prices they could fetch, it depends in part on how the market views a property that has a large number of tenants in the financial services sector, said Dunn Mileham, director of investment property sales at Trinity Partners.

Hot properties

In the mid-2000s, when the economy was booming, institutional investors bought uptown buildings at prices reaching nearly $300 a square foot, Mileham said. "Charlotte was going gangbusters," he said.

While the economy has changed drastically since then, "the great thing that came of that is it solidified Charlotte on a lot of (potential buyers') radar screens," Mileham said.

He said institutional buyers will do much due diligence before making a purchase - and if the buildings sell, that could signal that the buyer is confident about the bank's commitment to Charlotte.

"It could say, 'We feel Bank of America is long-term to the market,' " he said.

Bank of America owns or leases about 120 million square feet of office space around the world, according to its annual report. That includes nearly 800,000 square feet in the Bank of America Corporate Center and 1 Bank of America Center in Charlotte. "As our headquarters city, Bank of America has a long history in Charlotte," Raulerson said, "and we expect to maintain a significant presence for years to come."

The bank also said Wednesday that Gene Godbold, a 34-year company veteran who oversaw the bank's real estate holdings, will retire this month. Bank executive Patty Clement will assume his duties.