BB&T Financial Center

BB&T Financial Center is a 340-foot (100 m) postmodern green glass and steel skyscraper at 200 West 2nd Street and is the 2nd tallest building in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States^[2] with 271,445 square feet (25,218.1 m²) of space.^[3] It was completed in 1987 and has 21 floors.^[2] It served as the headquarters of BB&T from the merger of BB&T and Southern National Bank in 1995. The 19th floor has The Piedmont Club, with 13,232 square feet (1,229.3 m²).^[3]

BB&T Financial Center
BB&T Financial Center
Location within North Carolina
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Office
Location	200 W. 2nd Street Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
Coordinates	36.0956°N 80.2473°W / 36.0956; -80.2473
Completed	1987
Height
Roof	340 feet (100 m)
Top floor	264 feet (80 m)
Technical details
Floor count	21
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Hammill-Walter Associates; Sherman Carter Barnhart (consulting)[1]

History

One Triad Park was completed in 1987 at a cost of $24 million. Aetna Life Insurance Co. bought the building in 1991 for $10.1 million after foreclosure when previous owners could not pay a $26 million loan.^[4]

In the early 1990s, Southern National Bank was expanding and, although the headquarters stayed in Lumberton, North Carolina, the bank moved some operations to Winston-Salem. One Triad Park had 74,000 square feet (6,900 m²) of space Southern National could move into immediately.^[5] In 1993, with Southern National taking 80,000 square feet (7,400 m²) on eight floors, the building's name changed to Southern National Financial Center on May 3.^[6]

On August 1, 1994, BB&T and Southern National announced a "merger of equals". The merged bank would be called BB&T, though at first, the holding company remained Southern National.^[7] The headquarters became BB&T Financial Center.^[8] Southern National Corp. changed its name to BB&T Corp. in May 1997.^[9] Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice was another major tenant.^[10]

Parkway Properties Inc. of Jackson, Mississippi bought the building in 1996 for $25.5 million. Parkway sold the building to Cabot Investment Properties for $27 million in August 2003. Parkway Realty Services, a Parkway subsidiary, continued to manage the building. BB&T had 201,006 square feet (18,674.1 m²) as of 2002, and the Class A building was 97.5 percent occupied.^[4]

In December 2011, Inland Private Capital Corp. of Oak Brook, Illinois bought BB&T Financial Center for $34.1 million. BB&T occupied 94 percent of the building, still considered Class A.^[3]

In late 2014, investors bought BB&T Financial Center for $60 million, the most anyone ever paid per square foot for office space in the city, and nearly $26 million more than the tax value at the time.^[11][12] As of April, 2022, the tax value on the building was $30.2 million, nearly $30 million below purchase price.^[12]

After BB&T became Truist Financial in 2019, the company moved its headquarters to Truist Center in Charlotte, leaving the community/retail hub^{[clarification needed]} in Winston-Salem. Except for a branch office, all Truist employees were moving to other locations in the city.^[13] It has been mostly empty ever since.^[14]

Ownership

On October 18, 2018, one of the building's co-owners, Tyson "Ty" Rhame, was convicted by the Northern District of Georgia on 11 counts of mail and wire fraud conspiracy, and multiple counts of mail and wire fraud.^[12] The building has been a forfeiture target by the U.S. Government since March 2016, and a hearing was set for May 23, 2022 to determine the outcome.^[12] As of June 2, 2022, the hearing has not had an outcome.