Charlotte Area Chamber Of Commerce: Dominion Realty Partners Opens FNB Tower At 401 South Graham In Uptown Charlotte

Press release from the Charlotte Area Chamber of Commerce:

8/12/2021

Charlotte, NC (July 20, 2021) -- Today, Dominion Realty Partners (DRP) and New York Life Real Estate Investors  officially opened Uptown Charlotte’s newest and only green certified vertically integrated mixed-use development, the FNB Tower at 401 South Graham.  The striking, 29 story all glass tower, broke ground in January 2019 and is designed to achieve both LEED Certification and Three Green Globes, becoming only the second dually certified mixed-use tower in the region. FNB Corporation (NYSE: FNB), the corporate parent company of Pittsburgh, PA based First National Bank, signed a long-term commitment to become the tower’s anchor office tenant.

“Today is an exciting day for our entire team to be able to open this beautiful building after the challenges faced by almost everyone over the last 17 months as we navigated through Covid-19” Dominion Realty Partners Chairman & CEO Andy Andrews stated. “Fortunately, the team implemented safety and temperature checks in early March 2020 which allowed us to keep the site open and active for the entirety of the project, creating over 2,250 job opportunities.   It was a pleasure to work with this entire team on this very complex project and we are excited to have changed the Uptown Charlotte skyline with this environmentally friendly and healthy state-of-the-art tower” says Andrews.

Similar to the Downtown Raleigh tower that was delivered in January 2020 and also anchored by FNB, the Dominion Realty Partners team announced in 2019 that a New York Life Insurance Company subsidiary would be their equity partner in the development.

Located in Uptown Charlotte on the Corner of South Graham and W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, the FNB Tower is located directly between Truist Park and Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte’s baseball and football stadiums. The 29-story tower has a luxurious exterior façade featuring modern low-emissivity glass, metal skin and vertical mirror glass fins, using both local materials and local subcontractors to construct and furnish the tower. Much like DRP’s development of the FNB Tower in Downtown Raleigh, the project will also be a dual green certified project, achieving both LEED Gold certification and 3 Green Globes from the Green Building Initiative (GBI).  These certifications help ensure that tenants, both commercial and residential, are living and working in an environment where clean & healthy air and water are paramount.

The 420,000 square-foot building will include 156,000 square feet of Class A office space with ground floor retail, in addition to 196 luxury high-rise “smart unit” apartments [The Reed] that sits atop the 8-level parking deck. Other notable features include a world-class pool and amenity Skydeck & terrace offering unparalleled views of the skyline. This project represents the 35th green certified property for Dominion Realty Partners in the past 15 years.

The tower will become FNB’s regional headquarters, reaffirming the company’s commitment to the region. FNB will occupy more than 40,000 square feet of office space in the building, with additional options to expand to accommodate future growth, in addition to having a state-of-the-art retail banking office on the ground floor. The building will house the bank’s regional leadership, as well as other departments, such as commercial banking, retail and mortgage banking, wealth management, private banking and insurance.

“FNB Tower places our Company at the core of the thriving Uptown Charlotte area with a modern space where our local teams can collaborate to serve our clients and engage with the community,” said Vincent J. Delie, Jr., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of F.N.B. Corporation and First National Bank. “Opening the tower is a celebration of our continued growth and investment in Charlotte and throughout North Carolina and is especially meaningful following the challenges presented by the pandemic.”

FNB operates nearly 90 branches in North Carolina and South Carolina and maintains a significant retail deposit share in markets including Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, and the Piedmont Triad.

The commercial office space offers ten-foot ceilings with expansive glass and open, efficient floor plans. high speed elevators, full time security, and a location second to none while the apartments offer high ceilings, green certified units, hard flooring throughout, stainless appliances, quartz counter tops, smart units, California closets, tile showers, and an incredible amenity level experience with an outdoor patio, pool area, fireplaces, and grill area.

In addition to the bank, DRP will also open their Charlotte office in the tower.   The Charlotte office of DRP will be led by Wade Woodworth, with the goal of growing the company’s development portfolio in the market. Foundry Commercial will lead the leasing efforts for the remaining vacant office space in the office component and RangeWater will lease and manage the apartments, which are already 31% pre-leased.

Dominion and New York Life Real Estate Investors would like to thank Batson Cook Construction [General Contractor], Rule Joy Trammel + Rubio [Project Architect], LandDesign [Civil Engineer], Hunton Andrews Kurth [Legal Counsel] as well as the City of Charlotte for making this development a reality.

This press release was produced by the Charlotte Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.