United Community Bank Corporate HQ project.

[gman430]

It is time.  According to the news article, the site is zoned C-4 which means no height restrictions and the most density allowed in the city limits. It also says details will be released on the project next Tuesday at the Greenville County Council meeting.

https://www.postandcourier.com/greenville/business/wyche-law-firm-sells-downtown-greenville-offices-in-5-75m-transaction/article_04a7162e-5f64-11eb-a6de-bb3af72cbd5b.html

Edited January 26, 2021 by gman430

[GvilleSC]

If we lower our expectations, we won’t be disappointed. 6 stories. 

[gman430]

1 hour ago, GvilleSC said:

If we lower our expectations, we won’t be disappointed. 6 stories. 

Six stories and I am calling my attorney and then my attorney’s attorney. 

[gman430]

I bet it’s gonna be at least 20 stories tall.  Look at how excited everybody is.

**crickets**

Edited January 26, 2021 by gman430

[motonenterprises]

1 hour ago, gman430 said:

I bet it’s gonna be at least 20 stories tall.  Look at how excited everybody is.

**crickets**

I'm excited to see what they'll propose.

[cabelagent]

7 minutes ago, motonenterprises said:

I'm excited to see what they'll propose.

Must be Christmas again....everyone's waiting for Santa. 

[motonenterprises]

20 minutes ago, cabelagent said:

Must be Christmas again....everyone's waiting for Santa. 

Lol

[gman430]

34 minutes ago, cabelagent said:

Must be Christmas again....everyone's waiting for Santa. 

If it’s at least 20 stories, I fully expect to see Apaladin show up on site dressed as Santa.   Heck, I might even start taking drone pics again. 

Edited January 26, 2021 by gman430

[NewlyUpstate]

Anyone even know how many jobs UCB would bring to GVL for a HQ?  Their current HQ seems pretty tiny, so I imagine its in the range of a couple hundred.  I have a feeling we're looking at 3 or 4 stories for this building, considering its already on elevated land.

[distortedlogic]

5 minutes ago, NewlyUpstate said:

Anyone even know how many jobs UCB would bring to GVL for a HQ?  Their current HQ seems pretty tiny, so I imagine its in the range of a couple hundred.  I have a feeling we're looking at 3 or 4 stories for this building, considering its already on elevated land.

Agreed, i think we're looking at  2-4 floors here; this isn't a large bank. I think people are going to be disappointed if they're expecting a big building here. Rule of thumb for Greenville buildings; take the number of floors you'd expect to see in another city and cut it in half. Then cut it half again and you're close. 

[apaladin]

7 hours ago, gman430 said:

If it’s at least 20 stories, I fully expect to see Apaladin show up on site dressed as Santa.   Heck, I might even start taking drone pics again. 

You can count on it!, 

[gman430]

1 hour ago, NewlyUpstate said:

Anyone even know how many jobs UCB would bring to GVL for a HQ?  Their current HQ seems pretty tiny, so I imagine its in the range of a couple hundred.  I have a feeling we're looking at 3 or 4 stories for this building, considering its already on elevated land.

225 jobs. I would hope $30 million would buy more than a three story building especially when they paid almost $6 million for the site. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

22 minutes ago, gman430 said:

225 jobs. I would hope $30 million would buy more than a three story building especially when they paid almost $6 million for the site. 

Thanks for reposting the numbers.  See, those just don't sound like big numbers for a bank HQ. What is the size of the parcel? If its a small enough footprint it could go higher but lately we've been getting pretty large footprints. Do we have any other projects with similar numbers to compare to? 30 million doesn't even seem to get you a parking lot these days. That number just seems off for over 200 jobs. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by distortedlogic

[gman430]

24 minutes ago, distortedlogic said:

Thanks for reposting the numbers.  See, those just don't sound like big numbers for a bank HQ. What is the size of the parcel? If its a small enough footprint it could go higher but lately we've been getting pretty large footprints. Do we have any other projects with similar numbers to compare to? 30 million doesn't even seem to get you a parking lot these days. That number just seems off for over 200 jobs. 

I believe that $30 million is just the minimum investment required to receive FILOT.  The actual investment by UCB could be higher than that. I don’t know how big the actual site is but it looks pretty small going off Google Maps satellite imagery. It will be interesting to see if a parking garage is included also. That could definitely have implications to the height depending if it’s constructed on the bottom of the building or not. If I had to guess, I would say 10 stories tall.

Edited January 27, 2021 by gman430

[vicupstate]

The Wyche site is 1.89 acres.  UCB's current building is on 1.29 acres.  Their current building is 4 stories and is in a pretty prominent location itself.  I would expect them to at least go as high as what they already have.  A lot will depend on if they keep the building they are in and the space they have in other buildings, or just consolidate everything at the new site.   They did pay a lot for the land, so it would seem the building will be significant in size.  A garage seems like a given, IMO.   

[gman430]

UCB is located in several buildings downtown currently. My guess is that they will consolidate all of those jobs along with the 225 new jobs from relocating their corporate HQ into this one new building very much like Erwin Penland did. In other words, don’t be surprised if it’s a lot more than 225 people working in their new office building once it’s built and completed. Those 225 jobs are new ones only not ones already downtown that will probably be moving.

Edited January 27, 2021 by gman430

[GvilleSC]

15 minutes ago, gman430 said:

UCB is located in several buildings downtown currently. My guess is that they will consolidate all of those jobs along with the 225 new jobs from relocating their corporate HQ into this one new building very much like Erwin Penland did. In other words, don’t be surprised if it’s a lot more than 225 people working in their new office building once it’s built and completed. Those 225 jobs are new ones only not ones already downtown that will probably be moving.

I wonder if they see any value in keeping their drive thru at the current location. It's much more convenient to general traffic flow than the Wyche site, but I don't think you'd want to duplicate lobby/personal banking services across multiple sites in the CBD. Could be a case for at least keeping their current building and housing a service there (like mortgage, lending, or something else), and then move operational folks to the new building. Or, creating a drive thru teller or ATM setup like you have for South State on Broad Street. IDK. Just pondering... 

The impact on our office market will be something to watch... It's interesting that in the CBD, we have a brand new office building opening up (Falls Tower), and this potential additional office building to be constructed. The vacant space that will open up could be a great opportunity for folks, or look bad on paper (?). I would think that the Elliott Davis space is probably pretty attractive for parking, exposure, and quality. To put it in perspective, the loss of CH2M in the merger with Jacobs opened up their brand new building at Verdae for a relocation of company/jobs from Seneca. Who knows what is possible?

Additionally, it's great to see Greenville back on the financial scene for the state of SC. I think it's fair to say that we lost the lead role through mergers over many years, and the demise of South Financial. It's great to see Southern First constructing a new HQ in Greenville (granted, I wish it was downtown), and now UCB. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by GvilleSC

[gman430]

You may have seen the story by Post and Courier Greenville’s Anna B. Mitchell covering the sale of the downtown Greenville offices of Wyche law firm for $5.25 million to an as-yet-unannounced buyer. The incoming company is promising to invest $30 million and hire 225 employees.

There’s much more to come on this story, not the least of which is learning where Wyche will be located next. And while the company isn’t yet ready to divulge its plans, it is dropping a few hints about the future.

“Wyche has always been focused on contributing to the growth, success and positive transformation of our community. We’re fortunate for the opportunities we’ve had to play a role in the development of downtown Greenville — from Falls Park to the Peace Center to the Hyatt Hotel,” said Wyche CEO Tally Parham Casey in an emailed statement. “Both 44 and 200 East Camperdown Way have been treasured parts of our firm’s history, and while we will always hold a special place for East Camperdown Way, we are thrilled that our need to expand for future growth has coincided with exciting opportunities for our city’s continued expansion.”

According to the emailed statement from the company, the firm remains “invested in continuing its 100 year legacy of being central to shaping the Greenville community.”

Add to that this comment from Wyche shareholder Wallace Lightsey: “It’s remarkable to see Greenville’s evolution over the years, and we’re extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it for the past century. We know our next location will allow us to continue and expand our efforts to contribute to the community we have known and loved for generations.”

Those statements seem to imply Wyche isn’t going far. Stay tuned.

[Cityplanner]

Surely Wyche can move to Class A office space.  Historically it has been a very high-quality firm, historically requiring lofty academic credentials to be employed there.  Comparable firms would be in the best office building in town.

[gman430]

According to Loopnet, the entire third and fourth floors of the soon to be former Elliott Davis building just got leased. They were available a few days ago but now they’re not anymore: https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/200-E-Broad-St-Greenville-SC/13765450/ Coincidence? Over 40,000 square feet. 
 

Here is the pdf file showing when they were available: https://images1.loopnet.com/d2/kStGbxh-14x3pWrpItS5uMiMS0F_BE0ALI2esBIGd-U/200 E Broad Brochure.pdf

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by gman430

[vicupstate]

Strictly conjecture on my part, but if Wyche isn't going to the Elliott Davis building, then they will build across Camperdown from their current office.   

[distortedlogic]

4 hours ago, gman430 said:

You may have seen the story by Post and Courier Greenville’s Anna B. Mitchell covering the sale of the downtown Greenville offices of Wyche law firm for $5.25 million to an as-yet-unannounced buyer. The incoming company is promising to invest $30 million and hire 225 employees.

 

Huh? Isn't this the exact same numbers as UCB? I thought we already knew ot was UCB. Why are they saying unnamed?

[gman430]

1 hour ago, distortedlogic said:

Huh? Isn't this the exact same numbers as UCB? I thought we already knew ot was UCB. Why are they saying unnamed?

I guess because it hasn’t been announced yet. Even the article says it’s UCB though. 

Edited January 28, 2021 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

So let me see if I'm on the right page: UCB is currently in the old Palmetto Bank building just past the new Courthouse, but thay have apparently outgrown that space, as well as some space in the Elliot Davis building and the Erwin Penland building, AND they are moving their HQ from Georgia?

[gman430]

2 hours ago, distortedlogic said:

So let me see if I'm on the right page: UCB is currently in the old Palmetto Bank building just past the new Courthouse, but thay have apparently outgrown that space, as well as some space in the Elliot Davis building and the Erwin Penland building, AND they are moving their HQ from Georgia?

UCB currently has corporate offices in the old Palmetto Bank and old Erwin Penland buildings downtown. You can see their signage on both of these buildings when driving down Church Street and across the bridge. They don’t have any corporate office space in the Elliott Davis building. 

UCB’s corporate headquarters is currently located in Blairsville, Georgia. It’s strictly a guess but my guess is that they’ll be relocating their corporate headquarters here from there and will be setting up shop in the new building slated to get built on the Wyche site. This is where the new 225 jobs would come from. This move would make perfect sense due to the fact their entire executive team is already in Greenville. Another guess is that they will also be moving all of their corporate office space currently in the old Palmetto Bank and Erwin Penland buildings to this new one so they’re all under one roof. 

Elliott Davis as you know is moving to the new Camperdown office building so they can continue to grow and expand. They put up their current office space for lease a few months ago through Coldwell Banker Caine. They took up three full floors in the building which is what was for lease. Now only one floor remains available for lease which means an undisclosed company recently leased the other two floors. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Wyche Law Firm that leased this space due to the timing and them having to vacate their current space soon due to UCB’s new building going up on site.

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by gman430