Wachovia Downtown Employment?

[monsoon]

Everyone knows that significant numbers of Wachovia employees are no longer working in downtown Charlotte. There is the huge CTC center on Harris Blvd, and Wachovia also rents other office space in the University area. Now it appears that more are to move. John Walters from Childress Klein Properties, who manages Wachovia properties. Mr. Walters said many Wachovia employees are being relocated to Vance Davis Road in North Mecklenburg County. (This is located north of Harris Blvd between I-77 and Hwy 115 near North Lake mall)

As a result, he as asked CATS to extend the bus routes to serve this location. This would indicate to me that Wachovia in an effort to cut costs are moving people out of expensive downtown office space.

Does anyone know what kind of facility is on Vance Davis and how many it will employ? (of I forgot the Wachovia peeps have been cut off from the internet. )

[Mobuchu]

Maybe thats because they are overcrowded and need more space uptown... They are going to use at least 400,000sqf of office space in their new tower, doesn't sound like they are cutting costs to me.

None of that makes sense other then they need the room and just dont have it in uptown yet.

[SmellyCat]

I think it's just the opposite. I think Wachovia has been and will continue to expand. For example, they are leasing space at the dumpy Verbatim building on Harris Blvd in University City and are overflowing there. The reason they moved people there in the first place is that they were overflowing Uptown.

Even though the Uptown office market is tight (#2 market in the entire U.S. behind only Fort Worth), it is still relatively inexpensive at $22/sf average rents. That's because landlords have been timid about pushing rents up, because they fully know the big banks can simply shun them and build their own building, a la Wachovia's new project. That is one of the reasons BofA got a pretty sweetheart renewal lease from Trizec at BofA Plaza.

[graydog]

I talked to a Childress Klein exec (not Walters) and he said Wachovia is busting. They're stuffing people wherever they can. In addition to their current CLT employees, they're moving most of the Richmond brokerage office to Charlotte, last I heard. He said the crunch is why they want to move quickly on the new tower.

BofA is letting people work out of a Ballantyne satellite office so they can have a shorter commute. Could be that WACH is trying that approach too.

[mallguy]

What I can't figure out is why Uptown wouldn't be the natural destination for pretty much all office development in Charlotte. It's very nice and there is plenty of available land (i.e., parking lots and lots with minimal buildings on them) remaining for development. If Uptown is cheap, then even better. Yet Uptown has only under 40% of Charlotte's office market.

The only downside to Uptown that I could see is that commutes there from far away could take a long time and that parking is not free. What am I missing in this analysis?

Thanks.

[Miesian Corners]

What I can't figure out is why Uptown wouldn't be the natural destination for pretty much all office development in Charlotte. It's very nice and there is plenty of available land (i.e., parking lots and lots with minimal buildings on them) remaining for development. If Uptown is cheap, then even better. Yet Uptown has only under 40% of Charlotte's office market.

The only downside to Uptown that I could see is that commutes there from far away could take a long time and that parking is not free. What am I missing in this analysis?

Thanks.

Land is very expensive and (usually) because most buildings need to be highrises to make numbers work, buildings themselves are very expensive.

As for commuting taking a long time, tell that to those who worked uptown and now are forced to drive to University Research Park when Wachovia moved their jobs. I know of two people who live in Collins Park (just off Scaleybark) and had a nice easy drive or bus ride to Two Wachovia. Now they drive 30 minutes to CIC (commonly referred to as the Crutchfield Internment Center). All depends on where you live.

[dxartist]

I guess I'm the only Wach person who can get on UP on a semi-regular basis {shrug}

Anyway, there's no place to put people. Due to the nature of my job with Wach, I used to see Corporate Real Estate shuffle people all the time, finding space where they can. From time to time, I will bump into one of them while getting breakfast in the morning and they would tell me stuff. Some of the non-wachovia tenant floors that opened up in 2 of the buildings have are now being occupied by Wachovia employees. Space was so short last summer that the company had to lease space other buildings downtown.

When the main opens, it will alleviate some of the problem. But the new tower will definitely alleviate space problems.

There is space at Verbatim, but everyone in Wach hates it there. And they dread being moved out there. It's dull, drabby, and somewhat cutoff from the rest of the world it seems, and it's only across the street.

[monsoon]

....There is space at Verbatim, but everyone in Wach hates it there. And they dread being moved out there. It's dull, drabby, and somewhat cutoff from the rest of the world it seems, and it's only across the street.

I can imagine, it is a former floppy disk factory.

[go_vertical]

Didn't I read a post a while back that some Wachovia employees were having to share cubicles? Maybe the poster was exaggerating, but if they are that crowded then I completely understand this decision.

[dxartist]

Didn't I read a post a while back that some Wachovia employees were having to share cubicles? Maybe the poster was exaggerating, but if they are that crowded then I completely understand this decision.

you're referring to ilektronik, and no he was not not exaggerating

[Sabaidee]

If City Council and County Commission weren't so slow with the approval process, I guess Wachovia would have started construction on the needed office space months ago right?