The newly formed Truist Financial Corp. will buy Hearst Tower in uptown Charlotte for $455.5 million and rename the building Truist Center.
The company – a merger of Winston-Salem's BB&T and Atlanta-based SunTrust – will be headquartered in Charlotte, which is also home to the headquarters of Bank of America and the East Coast headquarters of Wells Fargo.
The BB&T-SunTrust merger became official Dec. 6, establishing Truist as the sixth-largest commercial bank in the United States, with about 10 million household customers.
Truist is buying the property from Atlanta-based Cousins Properties, the latter company announced Wednesday. Cousins says the transaction should close in March.
The 47-story, 970,000-square-foot building is a signature part of Charlotte's skyline. It's been in use since 2002.
"The Truist name at the top of this signature building will help to signify our beginning and demonstrates our commitment to the Queen City," Chairman and CEO Kelly King said in a statement.
Truist employees will move into space being used by Bank of America, Hearst Communications and K&L Gates, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. Some other current tenants will remain at the building.
Truist employees – eventually up to 2,000 – will move into Hearst Tower in phases. Senior leaders are already using the facility.
Truist signs should start appearing at Hearst Tower in spring 2020. As far as personal and business banking goes, the company says former BB&T and SunTrust customers can keep using their respective ATMs and branches for now. It could take about two years to integrate the two banks' systems into a new Truist one.
The company also plans to pick a site for an innovation and technology center in Charlotte in the next few months.
