Truist Center

The Truist Center is a 47-story, 659 ft (201 m) skyscraper in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The city's third tallest building, it is located along North Tryon Street. It was opened on November 14, 2002 and was known as the "Hearst Tower" until 2019. The structure is composed of a 32-story tower resting atop a 15-floor podium. Within the podium is a three-story trading facility designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and operated by Bank of America. The trading facility includes a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2), two-story trading floor. The building is currently the headquarters of Truist Financial, which purchased the building in March 2020.[3]

Truist Center
Former namesHearst Tower
General information
TypeOffice, museum
Location214 North Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Coordinates35°13′39″N 80°50′27″W
Named forTruist Financial
Hearst Communications (2002-2020)
Construction started1999
Completed2002
Opening2002
Cost$160 million (2002 USD)
OwnerTruist Financial
Height
Roof659 ft (201 m)
Technical details
Floor count47
Floor area970,002 sq ft (90,116.1 m2)[1][2]
Lifts/elevators29
Design and construction
ArchitectSmallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, Inc.
DeveloperBank of America
Other information
Public transit access 7th Street
Tryon Street

The building's reverse floorplate design makes the upper floors average 24,000 square feet (2,200 m2) compared to an average of only 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2) for the lower floors.[4]

The building's College Street lobby features brass railings designed by Edgar Brandt that were rescued from Le Bon Marche department store in Paris. On the mezzanine level, it connects to neighboring Bank of America Corporate Center via skybridge, as part of the Overstreet Mall. The Truist Plaza, a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) public plaza lined with restaurants, shops, and an art Gallery, is located next to the main entrance off North Tryon Street.[4] In front of the plaza is a 10-foot (3.0 m) glass and bronze sculpture crafted by Howard Ben Tre entitled the Castellan, which translates to "keeper of the castle." Within the lobby is Collaborate214, a coworking space introduced in October 2014.[5] The building's unique design was to complement the wedding cake design of nearby Bank of America Corporate Center by being the inverse of the headquarter's design.[3]

History

The building was developed by Bank of America. Originally the namesake Hearst Communications occupied 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) after it relocated from the Carillon Building and Bank of America occupied about half of the square footage. Prior to finishing construction it was 94% leased. The original cost of the building was $160 million.[4]

College Street entrance in May 2021

Cousins Properties Incorporated purchased the building, through a 2016 merger with Parkway Properties,[6] from Bank of America in 2013 for $250 million.[7] At the time of the sale Bank of America occupied 322,311 square feet (29,943.7 m2),[8] and the building was 94% leased.[9] On 12 June 2019, it was announced that Truist Financial, a bank holding company to be formed from the merger of BB&T and SunTrust Banks, had selected Hearst Tower for its future new corporate headquarters.[10] Truist will occupy 561,000 square feet (52,100 m2) in the tower and has an option to buy the tower from Cousins in the fourth quarter of 2019 for $455.5 million.[11] On 14 August 2019, Hearst Communications announced it would move out of its namesake tower to offices near the city's Ballantyne neighborhood in early 2020 to make way for Truist.[12][13] The space left by Bank of America, Hearst Communications, and K&L Gates moving out of the tower allowed Truist to occupy over half its square footage. U.S. Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bradley and Dixon Hughes Goodman continue to be tenants in the building.[14]

Truist announced plans to relocate the bank's executive team, corporate communications, finance, human resources, insurance, legal, technology, and risk management in the building. The bank will move in phases in August 2020 and lasting until June 2021.[15] The bank plans to have as many as 2,000 in the building.[16] Truist has announced that the Charlotte innovation center, planned to bring technology, legal, accounting staff together with its clients,[17] will be located in the building. As of December 2020 it was under construction.

On December 11, 2019, Truist Financial announced it had officially exercised its option to purchase the building from Cousins Properties for $455.5 million and would rename the tower Truist Center. New signage will also be added.[18] The deal was completed March 31, 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, further actions will be delayed.[19]

In November 2020 four signs were raised, two (on the North Tryon and North College street sides) with the Truist name, and two with its logo. The signage caused considerable controversy, with critics saying it was too sharp a contrast with the tower's curves. The building's architect, Charles Hull, denounced the new signage as an act of vandalism.[20] There is currently a petition titled "Save Charlotte's Art Deco Skyscraper! Remove the TRUIST Signs!!!" on Change.org requesting that Truist remove the signage.

Another large tenant of the building is U.S. Bank, with some 300 employees occupying 81,424 square feet (7,564.5 m2) as of 2014. Another 560 were added in 2020.[21] A large number are in compliance and technology.[22] The bank views Charlotte as an important hub that gives them access to potential talent and one of the company's fastest-growing markets.[21] The bank has been opening retail branches in Charlotte as following locating its vice chair and head of corporate and commercial banking to Charlotte.

See also

References
  1. Shapiro, Amy (2015-10-02). "The List: Charlotte's largest office buildings". Charlotte Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  2. Kalinoski, Gail (2019-06-13). "BB&T, SunTrust Take Big Lease at Charlotte Trophy Tower". Commercial Property Executive. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  3. Wright, Gordon (1 September 2003). "Topsy-Turvy Tower Skewed corners give Hearst Tower a distinctive image without upstaging a taller corporate neighbor in downtown Charlotte's banking mecca". Building Design + Construction. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  4. Martin, Scott (6 November 2000). "Hearst Tower's quirkiness makes atypical skyscraper". Charlotte Business Journal. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  5. Moore, Kylie (2016-04-05). ""There's a tiny gem of a co-working space in Hearst Tower (and it's free)"". Axios Charlotte. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  6. "Cousins Closes Merger With Pakway and Prepares to Spin off Combined Company's Houston-Based Assets". Counsins Properties. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  7. Boye, Will (3 May 2012). "Parkway Properties agrees to buy Hearst Tower". Charlotte Business Journal. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  8. Boye, Will (9 May 2012). "Bank of America makes sales pitch for Hearst, Fifth Third towers". Charlotte Business Journal. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  9. Singe, Kerry; Dunn, Andrew (4 May 2012). "Sale of Hearst Tower may signal investor interest in Charlotte". The Charlotte Observer. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  10. "BB&T and SunTrust choose 'signature' uptown tower as headquarters for new bank". Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  11. "BB&T, SunTrust Take Big Lease at Charlotte Trophy Tower". Commercial Property Executive. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  12. Chemtob, Danielle (14 August 2019). "Hearst will leave its uptown tower to make way for BB&T and SunTrust workers". Charlotte Observer.
  13. "Hearst moving regional office out of namesake tower in uptown to south Charlotte". Charlotte Business Journal. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  14. Fahey, Ashley (1 December 2019). "Truist to purchase Hearst Tower for $455.5M, rename uptown building". Charlotte Business Journal.
  15. Roberts, Deon (12 June 2019). "BB&T and SunTrust choose 'signature' uptown tower as headquarters for new bank". The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  16. "BB&T, SunTrust Take Big Lease at Charlotte Trophy Tower". Commercial Property Executive. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  17. Hudson, Caroline (29 December 2020). "CEO Kelly King on the next steps for Truist's rise to prominence in Charlotte". Charlotte Business Journal. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  18. Chemtob, Danielle; Weinstein, Austin (11 December 2019). "Truist buys uptown tower for record $455 million as bank builds Charlotte presence". The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  19. Craver, Richard (2 April 2020). "Truist completes $455.5M purchase of Charlotte HQ; bank delays new branding unveilings". Winston-Salem Journal.
  20. Weinstein, Austin (7 December 2020). "Truist put its name on its new HQ. The building's architect called it vandalism". The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  21. Hudson, Caroline (29 June 2020). "Charlotte-based executive Jim Kelligrew leading changes in US Bancorp's corporate, commercial banking division". Charlotte Business Journal. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  22. Boye, Will (21 November 2014). "U.S. Bank expands at Hearst Tower, leasing 35th floor". Charlotte Business Journal. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
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