Truist buys uptown tower for record $455 million as bank builds Charlotte presence
Less than a week after the merger between BB&T and SunTrust closed, the new bank, Truist, is buying its planned headquarters building in uptown Charlotte for $455.5 million and renaming it.
That price is an N.C. record for an office building.
Truist said Wednesday it exercised its option to purchase the 46-story Hearst Tower at 214 North Tryon St, where it plans to house around 2,000 employees. The building’s current owner, Atlanta-based real-estate firm Cousins Properties said the deal is expected to close in March.
This is Truist’s first significant gesture that it intends to be a top player in Charlotte’s banking sector, historically dominated by its larger rivals Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
The tower, opened in 2002 by Bank of America, will be renamed the Truist Center. Signage for the new bank will be installed after the transaction closes.
Originally designed to give a rapidly-expanding Bank of America more office space in uptown, it cost the bank $160 million to build and featured one of the largest trading floors in America at the time. Bank of America sold the tower in 2012 for $250 million to a company that Cousins later acquired, and the bank leased back much of its space in the tower.
With the new purchase, Truist, the third-largest bank in Charlotte, will occupy the city’s third-tallest tower.
Moving in stages
The $66-billion merger of SunTrust and BB&T closed late Friday, the largest bank merger since the financial crisis. It is now the sixth-largest bank in the U.S., and it becomes the second major bank to be based in Charlotte, alongside Bank of America.
The 966,000-square-foot building will eventually be home to Truist’s executive team, along with its legal, finance and technology groups, among others.
When Truist said it was moving its headquarters to the tower earlier this year, Bank of America and Hearst announced plans to leave the building to accommodate the new bank. Truist will move into the building in stages, occupying over 550,000 square feet in the tower by late 2021.
‘Signature building’
“The Truist name at the top of this signature building will help to signify our beginning and demonstrates our commitment to the Queen City,” said Kelly King, the former BB&T chief executive officer who leads the combined banks. Truist also plans to open an innovation and technology center in Charlotte, the site of which the bank says it will announce in the coming months.
Truist intends to roll out its logo and branding in the early part of next year, King recently told the Observer.
The bank will also have to change computer systems, rename branches and debut a new app. The vast majority of its clients won’t need new account numbers, King has said.
Still unclear is what the bank intends to do with its existing Charlotte properties.
The combined banks haven’t announced what’s planned for BB&T’s tower on South College Street or SunTrust’s regional headquarters in SouthPark’s Sharon Square, which features a small trading floor.
A busy market
The Hearst sale is the latest tower to sell in Charlotte’s booming office market.
The record price topped the $441.6 million sale of Bank of America’s smaller but newer tower along Stonewall Street that was finalized last month. And in June, Crescent Communities and Nuveen Real Estate purchased the 20-story tower at 101 North Tryon St. for $132 million, property records show.
Over 1.2 million square feet of office space is under development in uptown, according to an October report from commercial real estate services firm JLL.
A 26-story tower in uptown anchored by Ally Financial is slated to be completed in early 2021, and a 23-story tower that will serve as Honeywell’s headquarters broke ground this year.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 8:53 AM.
