By james art The parking garage beneath the former BB&T Financial Center in downtown Winston-Salem has been sold as part of a purchase of Truist’s commercial real estate portfolio by a Florida group.
The parking lot at 231 W. First St. was purchased for $1.5 million by 6600 South Kanner LLC and New Investment Bank Buildings LLC, both of Parkland, Florida.
The above-ground lot, known as Corpening Plaza, was not part of the deal.
Corpening Plaza was developed in the 1970s and was first known as Triad Park Plaza. The park was renamed in honor of Mayor Wayne Corpening, who was mayor of Winston-Salem from 1977-1989. The square is used for concerts and other community events throughout the year
The same groups paid $4.5 million for the 150 S. Stratford Road property off Salem Parkway, which contains 138,093 buildings, and $1.4 million for the former Truist branch at 1310 Battleground Ave. in Greensboro.
Truist said it no longer provides a breakdown of individual operatives. At last count, the company has about 1,700 employees at its Triad Corporate Center complex near Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro.
Sev Rodriguez, Florida group manager, said Wednesday that “we have no current plans for the parking garage. It was purchased as part of a large group of properties from Truist.”
Rodriguez said the parking garage represents an “untypical purchase” for the groups because it is separate from BB&T’s former headquarters.
Truist Financial Corp. announced in March 2020 that it was leaving the 20-story building after 25 years in favor of three lower-profile properties it owned in the city, including properties at 110 and 150 South Stratford Road and the Park Building in downtown Winston-Salem .
“These transitions are part of Truist’s overall corporate real estate strategy to move our teams from leased spaces into owned buildings whenever possible,” Truist spokeswoman Shelley Miller said at the time. Truist completed the move out of the former headquarters building in 2021.
The operational moves are expected to be completed “in a few months,” Miller said.
The former headquarters building was built in 1987 for $24 million and was originally named One Triad Park. BB&T became a major tenant after its initial $2.2 billion merger of equals with Southern National Corp. in 1995
BB&T spent $22.14 million in February 2017 to buy the Park Building, a 206,000-square-foot former Wachovia building.
Greg Wilson, an executive vice president in CBRE’s Triad office, said Wednesday that the office began selling the building in September after Truist’s lease expired and the building was placed into receivership by the lender in March.
The building has been listed since March 2016 as a potential forfeiture target for the US government.
Former co-owner Tyson “Ty” Reim was convicted on October 10, 2018, of 11 of 13 counts of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as multiple counts of mail and wire fraud.
Rodriguez said his groups have interest in owning the former BB&T headquarters building.
“Only time will tell when everyone’s expectations are defined and the reality check begins,” he said.
“It’s a very difficult project, it’s very difficult to retrofit that kind of building without a tenant or residential component in place.”