Another corporate headquarters is coming to South End and bringing over 100 jobs
A new corporate headquarters is coming to South End.
Brightspeed, a broadband and telecommunications company, said Tuesday it is establishing its headquarters in the east tower of Vantage South End, the 635,000-square-foot, mixed-use development just two blocks from uptown at South Tryon Street and West Carson Boulevard.
Brightspeed plans to occupy an added approximately 27,000 square foot space in the building by the fourth quarter of this year, according to the news release. Construction on the new workspace will start in May.
The firm is also looking to hire for more than 100 positions as it builds out its corporate staff in Charlotte. The South End office will house corporate functions like the company’s legal, marketing and finance department, the release said.
“Brightspeed is thrilled to be setting down roots in Charlotte,” chief administration officer Chris Creager said in the release. He cited the city’s economy, talent pool and access to transportation among Brightspeed’s reasons for selecting Charlotte as its corporate base.
Brightspeed was formed in August when private equity firm Apollo Global Management bought certain assets of Lumen Technologies, a Fortune 500 telecommunications company, according to Brightspeed’s LinkedIn page.
The firm is working bridge the digital divide, particularly in rural and suburban America, according to its website. Brightspeed plans to invest more than $2 billion to build a fiber optic internet and Wi-Fi network across the Midwest and Southeast, as well as some parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Growth in South End
The addition of Brightspeed is just the latest move for the fast-growing part of town.
In fact, South End was recently cited as one of two submarkets in the country to double its inventory of top-tier office space in the past five years, according to research firm CoStar Group. A community just outside of downtown Chicago was the only other “submarket,” or neighborhood in a larger city that has a similar office market, to make the list.
And in late February,Crescent Communities and Nuveen Real Estate said they will develop Carson South End at 1102 South Tryon St. in South End. The $600 million, 31-story mixed-use tower should be finished by 2025.
Observer business editor Adam Bell contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 1:21 PM.
