BB&T leaving DT for Mauldin; College St. property available

[vicupstate]

BB&T moving to Butler Rd. corridor from DT building

Hate to see they leave DT and the city proper, but glad to see the potential for their parking lots to be developed and potentially an upgrade to the building too.

 

The city really needs to be deeply involved with this area since there is so much land available for development/redevelopment.  Just the BB&T and Woodside properties alone are more than 10 acres. Throw Cline in and you have another 5 acres.  Then you also have the Butler/Buncombe corner that Sphinx wanted to put a store on.  

 

    

[GvilleSC]

**Steps on his architecture/planning soapbox**

This shines a less than positive light on BB&T leadership. Smart financial decision on a spreadsheet: sure. Moving your employees to an unwalkable location: speaks to the amount of value one places on human capital, including health and mental wellness. I think it says just the opposite about their "commitment to South Carolina" that is quoted in the article. Commitment to a cheap, two story building in the burbs is going to be a lot less than a moderate-to-substantial investment in an urban center. 

Meanwhile, Mauldin is so excited about the jobs and asphalt (Good for them on the jobs). BUT, If only they could have tried harder (or at all) to develop a walkable node by now, BB&T would have been a great daytime population base. 

In positive news, the western/northern gateway to downtown has some real potential! Hopefully it's well planned and executed! 

[ausrutherford]

Does BB&T still think its 1965?

[gman]

BB&T is going to have a huge presence in downtown Greenville, moving its Upstate headquarters into the One building. This move if for the mortgage operations division, which will need much more space. Downtown wins. The suburbs win. The Upstate wins. What is wrong with that? 

http://upstatebusinessjournal.com/news/bbts-boys-back-town/

[vicupstate]

7,000 SF vs. 140,000 SF doesn't sound like a win for DT.  As long as something positive happens with the College Street property, I won't complain.  

How big is the existing building? 

 

[gman430]

5 hours ago, gman said:

BB&T is going to have a huge presence in downtown Greenville, moving its Upstate headquarters into the One building. This move if for the mortgage operations division, which will need much more space. Downtown wins. The suburbs win. The Upstate wins. What is wrong with that? 

http://upstatebusinessjournal.com/news/bbts-boys-back-town/

You're kidding right? This reminds me of that time Carolina First (now TD Bank) decided to build their complex along I-85 instead of downtown. 

[gman]

8 hours ago, gman430 said:

You're kidding right? This reminds me of that time Carolina First (now TD Bank) decided to build their complex along I-85 instead of downtown. 

Not kidding at all. We are big enough that what happens in our entire region is good for all. It's good when we have success in the suburbs and downtown. 

[gman]

On 2/17/2017 at 11:12 AM, gman430 said:

You're kidding right? This reminds me of that time Carolina First (now TD Bank) decided to build their complex along I-85 instead of downtown. 

Not kidding at all. We are big enough that what happens in our entire region is good for all. It's good when we have success in the suburbs and downtown. 

I was downtown today and drove by the huge BB&T parking lot across from the College St. headquarters. I am thinking there is more to come to the story of the move. That parking is not the best use of that valuable property. I wonder if BB&T has sold that property to a commercial use developer. This will be interesting to watch. 

[gman430]

1 hour ago, gman said:

Not kidding at all. We are big enough that what happens in our entire region is good for all. It's good when we have success in the suburbs and downtown. 

I was downtown today and drove by the huge BB&T parking lot across from the College St. headquarters. I am thinking there is more to come to the story of the move. That parking is not the best use of that valuable property. I wonder if BB&T has sold that property to a commercial use developer. This will be interesting to watch. 

Hope so. The entire site is currently for sale for redevelopment purposes through CBRE. The building is 117,000 square feet. 

[vicupstate]

The listing says  * CALL FOR OFFERS DUE JANUARY 31, 2017.

Does that mean that is it still on the market? 

[adrockc2]

I predict a pedestrian bridge/tunnel for crossing Academy as part of any new development.

[PuppiesandKittens]

I assume that the decisionmakers at BB&T saw downtown property values increasing, and figure that people who work in mortgage processing (a back-office department) will work at BB&T wherever it's located, unlike higher-wage employees (which is an insulting view--mortgage processors are people, too), so they decided to move out of downtown.

I see the argument that having jobs come anywhere in a metropolitan area can have benefits that spill over to downtown, but I've seen that argument made in places such as Detroit, Newark and Cleveland: where downtown is desolate, adding people with incomes anywhere nearby will add at least a few dollars of income that will be spent downtown,thus helping downtown grow, even if downtown isn't the primary place where those incomes are added.  That isn't the case here: here, jobs are being moved out of downtown probably because the employer figures that they can be moved elsewhere to save money, since downtown is thriving so much. 

Now that this has happened a few times (including with Carolina First), I think that city government needs to act.  Perhaps designate certain areas around downtown as good locations for back-office operations that usually wouldn't be located in the highest-cost location downtown, and change zoning and cut red tape so that jobs will be shifted from downtown (when necessary) but at least stay near enough to downtown that employees can still shop and live downtown.  Areas to the west of downtown would be good for this.

The conservative in me also calls for peer pressure to be put on CEOs who make decisions like the ones that BB&T made.  Be a good public citizen and help build a beautiful city that is good for all by focusing development downtown.  Hugh McColl at Bank of America thought like that, and praise to him.