Duke Energy is shrinking its Charlotte office footprint, as COVID changes workspace
Driven by the coronavirus pandemic and a shift toward more remote work, Duke Energy, one of Charlotte’s major employers, is taking another step toward shrinking its real estate footprint in the area.
The company recently confirmed that it is under contract to sell its Piedmont Natural Gas Charlotte Business Office to apartment developer Terwilliger Pappas.
The developer filed a rezoning petition this month and plans to build between 250 and 300 apartments on the site near South Tryon Street and Yancey Road, said Jeffrey Smith, executive vice president at Terwilliger Pappas.
As COVID-19 has accelerated the shift toward remote work, corporations have begun reevaluating their need for office space.
Catherine Butler, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, said the company expects people currently working remotely to have hybrid schedules after the pandemic, meaning they would split their time between the office and home.
“That naturally draws you to a smaller real estate footprint,” she said. Duke Energy employs a total of around 29,000 people.
Other Charlotte employers have been re-thinking their need for real estate as well, such as Atrium Health. And Grant Thornton, a tax, audit and advisory firm, announced last month it was moving from a tower that bears its name in uptown to a smaller space in South End.
Duke Energy’s moves
Duke Energy was already consolidating office space before the coronavirus hit with the construction of a 40-story tower in uptown. The company has around 6,000 workers in the uptown area.
Work on the high-rise is expected to be complete at the end of 2022, Butler said, with employees moving in at the beginning of 2023.
When the tower was announced, the company said it would move employees from three other Charlotte facilities into the new building. And two years ago, the company also shifted workers into a new innovation space at Optimist Hall, a redeveloped pantyhose mill north of uptown.
For the Piedmont Natural Gas office in south Charlotte, the sale includes the building and a parking lot. Both Butler and Smith declined to share details of the purchase price or timeline for closing.
Butler said that as part of a review of Duke Energy’s facilities, the company decided to consolidate some of its real estate assets on Yancey Road. She declined to state how much the company was looking to reduce its real estate footprint by.
About 60 to 70 people are assigned to the office being sold, most of whom are part of the customer care and operations teams, Butler said.
Those employees will be relocated to other Charlotte offices.
More housing development
The area south of South End where the Piedmont Natural Gas office is located is part of a growing entertainment and nightlife district, which some developers and boosters refer to as “LoSo” or Lower South End.
Crescent Communities started construction last year on an apartment community near Scaleybark Station called Novel LoSo, which is part of a larger redevelopment plan for the station. Much of that plan is on hold due to COVID-19, however.
And developer Investicore Holdings USA announced plans in 2019 to transform an industrial site into a retail and entertainment development along South Boulevard called “The Platform.”
Smith said that wave of development and the nearby amenities are what drew his firm to want to build housing in the area.
“We’re kind of riding the coattails of what those entrepreneurs had created,” Smith said. “And we wanted to enhance it with bringing residents here.”
