United Community Bank Corporate HQ project.

[gman430]

You can watch a live feed of the council meeting here starting at 6pm: https://www.greenvillecounty.org/livestream.aspx

Edited February 2, 2021 by gman430

[cabelagent]

1 hour ago, gman430 said:

You can watch a live feed of the council meeting here starting at 6pm: https://www.greenvillecounty.org/livestream.aspx

Wonder if anyone will be watching  

[gman430]

13 minutes ago, cabelagent said:

Wonder if anyone will be watching  

Elaborate. Spill it. It’s only gonna be two stories isn’t it?  

Edited February 2, 2021 by gman430

[goodbye]

Height is irrelevant unless additional investment is expected for this project.  $30 million will not buy a new corporate office highrise in today's market unless it has a footprint the size of a shoebox.

[cabelagent]

47 minutes ago, gman430 said:

Elaborate. Spill it. It’s only gonna be two stories isn’t it?  

Whatever it is...hope the area is not surrounded with a green fence...that's a bad sign.   

[gman430]

11 minutes ago, Skyliner said:

Height is irrelevant unless additional investment is expected for this project.  $30 million will not buy a new corporate office highrise in today's market unless it has a footprint the size of a shoebox.

Yeah, you’re  probably right. To compare, Southern First’s new HQ is $40 million and is five stories tall. It is a bigger site though than this one which means a wider building for them so maybe 7-10 stories tall for UCB. Of course a parking garage at the bottom could sway things a little bit. The workers on site gotta park somewhere. 

Edited February 2, 2021 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

I think the previously guessed 2-4 or 3-5 is is the likely outcome.  Nothing from the meeting?

[cabelagent]

38 minutes ago, distortedlogic said:

I think the previously guessed 2-4 or 3-5 is is the likely outcome.  Nothing from the meeting?

Apparently no news.....the livestream didn't work either.  

[gman430]

I was able to watch the livestream. Nothing from the meeting. They simply voted yes and moved on to the next item on the agenda.

[motonenterprises]

6 minutes ago, cabelagent said:

Apparently no news.....the livestream didn't work either.  

It worked. Nothing major on this. They just voted on it.

[cabelagent]

2 minutes ago, motonenterprises said:

It worked. Nothing major on this. They just voted on it.

Thanks....had message "Livestream Unavailable" when I attempted to open the attachment.  

[gman430]

Major announcement to be made tomorrow morning: 

https://www.postandcourier.com/greenville/business/united-community-bank-approved-for-tax-breaks-with-plans-to-expand-greenville-presence/article_5a5c291a-65a4-11eb-a677-fbf0d27fda4a.html

United Community Bank has not yet officially announced whether its new Greenville investment means it intends to move its headquarters here. Bank executives, many of whom have worked in Greenville for years, plan a major announcement on Wednesday morning.

Details about what the bank has in mind for the parcel also remain unclear, including whether it intends to build a new structure, how tall that structure would be and what offices would be housed there. Located within the city of Greenville’s central business district, zoning regulations on the parcel allow for unlimited height and density.

Edited February 3, 2021 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

IDK guys, I guess we'll see, but I hope we're not way over expecting here. 

[gman430]

3 minutes ago, distortedlogic said:

IDK guys, I guess we'll see, but I hope we're not way over expecting here. 

I doubt it’s just a renovation due to the overall cost of the project and amount of people that are going to be working there. Wyche has 100 people there now. I don’t see any way 225 could fit into that building. Honestly, I feel like it’s going to be a new building probably around 10 stories tall with a parking garage attached. An office building the height of ONE on that hill still will look really good. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

5 minutes ago, gman430 said:

I doubt it’s just a renovation due to the overall cost of the project and amount of people that are going to be working there. Wyche has 100 people there now. I don’t see any way 225 could fit into that building. Honestly, I feel like it’s going to be a new building probably around 10 stories tall with a parking garage attached. An office building the height of ONE on that hill still will look really good. 

Yeah a 10 story office building could be anywhere from about 150 to even 200ft tall, but again,  30mm wouldn't cover that unless it's more than just 30. I read somewhere they already have over 300 employees already downtown in various locations. If they were combining those with the 225 they'd need room for nearly 600 and that wouldn't count growing room. I have no idea how much floor space would be needed for that many but you can put a lot of cubicles in a small space. Still, that doesn't seem to fit with the 30MM. Perhaps they are moving the HQ into a new building here but keeping existing employees where they are?

[gman430]

1 hour ago, distortedlogic said:

Yeah a 10 story office building could be anywhere from about 150 to even 200ft tall, but again,  30mm wouldn't cover that unless it's more than just 30. I read somewhere they already have over 300 employees already downtown in various locations. If they were combining those with the 225 they'd need room for nearly 600 and that wouldn't count growing room. I have no idea how much floor space would be needed for that many but you can put a lot of cubicles in a small space. Still, that doesn't seem to fit with the 30MM. Perhaps they are moving the HQ into a new building here but keeping existing employees where they are?

I believe that $30 million is just the minimum investment so it could honestly be anything over that. It’s really hard to say what they’ll do with all of their employees downtown. My guess is that they’ll consolidate them all to this one building so they don’t have to pay leases on the properties they are currently in downtown. They would own their new building. Makes it easier for the employees to work with one another within different departments if they're all under one roof also. BofA and Erwin Penland did this and consolidated all of their operations into one building. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by gman430

[gman430]

Well, two of the three current UCB offices downtown will be moving into the new building with the 225 jobs. Still no renderings though or even how big the building will be: 

https://www.postandcourier.com/greenville/business/united-community-bank-will-move-headquarters-to-greenville-double-local-employees/article_73ad68a4-65c0-11eb-86e3-0fcbbf3d8971.html

http://upstatebusinessjournal.com/business-news/united-community-bank-headquarters-relocating/

http://www.greenvillebusinessmag.com/2021/02/03/345017/united-community-bank-moving-corporate-headquarters-to-greenville

https://www.wyff4.com/article/united-community-bank-names-new-corporate-headquarters-and-expands-in-greenville-county/35406580

https://www.wspa.com/news/local-news/united-community-bank-gets-greenlight-from-county-council-to-move-headquarters-to-downtown-greenville/

Edited February 3, 2021 by gman430

[gman430]

McMillan Pazdan Smith is the architect. Furman Co. is also involved. It will be a new building with a bank branch included. Still no renderings or how big the building will be...ugh. Site plan:

Edited February 3, 2021 by gman430

[johnpro318]

33 minutes ago, gman430 said:

McMillan Pazdan Smith is the architect. Furman Co. is also involved. It will be a new building with a bank branch included. Still no renderings or how big the building will be...ugh. Site plan:

It's a waste of the lot honestly. That site would have great views of the park and skyline. Look at all the waste land? I was hoping the city would work with them to plan a new at grade light for the intersection of Church and Camperdown. Get ride of the weird ramps and open up more land for redevelopment. No foresight.

[gman430]

Seven stories tall total. Five stories of office space with a two level parking garage at bottom. Definitely fits in with the cost. No surprise there. Yay for another boring midrise. How long until the media calls it a tower? Disappointed to say the least.  

Edited February 3, 2021 by gman430

[vicupstate]

Quote

Get ride of the weird ramps and open up more land for redevelopment. No foresight.

Church street  is a US Highway, so  that was never likely to happen and would take years to accomplish. 

That drawing shows at least one ramp gone, btw. Not sure if that is based on anything at all, though. 

[gman]

26 minutes ago, gman430 said:

Seven stories tall total. Five stories of office space with a two level parking garage at bottom. Definitely fits in with the cost. No surprise there. Yay for another boring midrise. How long until the media calls it a tower? Disappointed to say the least.  

It sounds like the height will fit in well with the surrounding area. I am looking forward to seeing the drawings. 

[NewlyUpstate]

37 minutes ago, vicupstate said:

Church street  is a US Highway, so  that was never likely to happen and would take years to accomplish. 

That drawing shows at least one ramp gone, btw. Not sure if that is based on anything at all, though. 

That drawing actually shows 3 ramps gone. The only remaining connection between Camperdown and Church is Falls Street.  I'm a big fan of this layout, I don't like having an interchange here and they should be separate routes.

Also,  are the 2 garage floors at grade or underground? If underground this essentially aligns exactly with my expectations, 2 floors of parking underground with 5 floors of office showing.  I do wish the footprint was larger with no surface parking though.  Not a huge fan of having a drive-thru style branch at this location, hopefully its just casual walk in.

[GvilleSC]

I wouldn't read too much into the ramps. Probably just a poor site drawing.

I wish the building wasn't kinked  the way it's shown. I have a feeling we are going to see an unfortunate loss of trees based on the site layout. The height is as expected. I'm not overly optimistic on the building design, but hey: prove me wrong! 

 

Edit: I do welcome the jobs, and am quite happy they're choosing to invest in Greenville! 

Edited February 3, 2021 by GvilleSC

[cabelagent]

1 hour ago, gman430 said:

Seven stories tall total. Five stories of office space with a two level parking garage at bottom. Definitely fits in with the cost. No surprise there. Yay for another boring midrise. How long until the media calls it a tower? Disappointed to say the least.  

Exciting stuff (hard to be otherwise)....hope a tower crane is necessary.