Ally Charlotte Center (f/k/a Tryon Place) - 26 floors - 427'

[SydneyCarton]

That plaza is going to be beautiful and a “yuge” improvement over the mechanic/tire store that used to be on this site.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

Yeah, that's a great rendering...think it will turn out well!  What's the square footage of that stand alone retail space on the plaza?  Is it similar in size to the one on top of Stonewall Station?

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

Yeah, that's a great rendering...think it will turn out well!  What's the square footage of that stand alone retail space on the plaza?  Is it similar in size to the one on top of Stonewall Station?

1100 Sq feet.  There will be additional retail in JW Marriott, but not sure who is leasing it.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Guest

[SydneyCarton]

10 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Honestly, its really tough to judge a space from afar, without human scale to compare it to. It should be really vibrant when done. Especially with a great big willow oak anchoring the intersection in true Charlotte fashion. 

 

RDF,

Are there any water features in that plaza?  It looks like there may be on the interior and exterior of that circle.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

RDF,

Are there any water features in that plaza?  It looks like there may be on the interior and exterior of that circle.

I believe those are led strips. I don't think this one will have a water feature, it has a ton of tiered landscaping, and will be really nicely done. I can tell you Vantage by Spectrum will have several.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Guest

[SydneyCarton]

9 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

I believe those are led strips. I don't think this one will have a water feature, it has a ton of tiered landscaping, and will be really nicely done. I can tell you Vantage by Spectrum will have several.

Thanks.  This plaza will be really impressive.

[CLT_sc]

According to business journal, Ally will lease the entire building.  

Time for another tower to start.

[KJHburg]

very interesting that Ally is upping their lease to 742,000 sq from 400,000 sq ft.  To me maybe Crescent will start this rumored tower nearby.  JLL was supposed to move in Ally too I guess they are not now.    This is a very significant development as this tower was supposedly 75% preleased now it is 100% preleased.  It is indeed time to announce and start work on their next tower.  

[Crucial_Infra]

4 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

very interesting that Ally is upping their lease to 742,000 sq from 400,000 sq ft.  To me maybe Crescent will start this rumored tower nearby.  JLL was supposed to move in Ally too I guess they are not now.    This is a very significant development as this tower was supposedly 75% preleased now it is 100% preleased.  It is indeed time to announce and start work on their next tower.  

Is this rumored Crescent tower the 400-footer being hinted at on the other side of 277? 

[KJHburg]

4 minutes ago, Crucial_Infra said:

Is this rumored Crescent tower the 400-footer being hinted at on the other side of 277? 

I am in Asheville  and have no further comment.  The Vanderbilts are calling me. 

[J-Rob]

I feel like we need to cue the "It's time for Ally to move HQ to Charlotte" discussion again.  I have no basis for it, but increasing from 400K sq ft to 720k is a big deal. Maybe this has something to do with Ally partnering with better.com, which is increasing office space in Charlotte?

Regardless, I am ready for some announcements.  Did the multiple rumored big fish die, or are they still out there somewhere?

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/48828-ally-financial-partnering-with-bettercom-to-launch-digital-mortgage-platform/

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/09/16/digital-mortgage-lender-seeks-to-hire-1-000-in.html

[Hushpuppy321]

20 minutes ago, J-Rob said:

I feel like we need to cue the "It's time for Ally to move HQ to Charlotte" discussion again.  I have no basis for it, but increasing from 400K sq ft to 720k is a big deal. Maybe this has something to do with Ally partnering with better.com, which is increasing office space in Charlotte?

Regardless, I am ready for some announcements.  Did the multiple rumored big fish die, or are they still out there somewhere?

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/48828-ally-financial-partnering-with-bettercom-to-launch-digital-mortgage-platform/

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/09/16/digital-mortgage-lender-seeks-to-hire-1-000-in.html

Does anyone know if Ally Center (742K SF) would actually be large enough to be the New HQ for Ally?

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

On 2/10/2020 at 12:38 PM, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Especially with a great big willow oak anchoring the intersection in true Charlotte fashion. 

 

BofA Stadium's use of a live oak makes me wish we saw more of these planted in Charlotte. A huge Live Oak would grow slowly and be costly, but would be a year-round attraction.

[SydneyCarton]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

very interesting that Ally is upping their lease to 742,000 sq from 400,000 sq ft.  To me maybe Crescent will start this rumored tower nearby.  JLL was supposed to move in Ally too I guess they are not now.    This is a very significant development as this tower was supposedly 75% preleased now it is 100% preleased.  It is indeed time to announce and start work on their next tower.  

Where is Crescent's nearby site on which a new tower might rise?  This sounds very promising.

Edited February 11, 2020 by SydneyCarton

[turbocraig]

1 hour ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Does anyone know if Ally Center (742K SF) would actually be large enough to be the New HQ for Ally?

A few things are a mystery to me with this project.  It was reported earlier in this thread that this building, which was designed for Ally, wasn't even large enough to contain all of Ally's operations here, so some people were moving to this new tower while some were staying in the old one on Church St.  So the obvious question to me was why didn't they just build it bigger to accommodate their current or future expansion needs?  If you had a size 10 foot and growing, why are you shopping for size 8 shoes?   Now maybe all of their folks here will fit with the news of them taking all the space, I don't know.  But then why didn't they just take all the space to begin with if they were saying they didn't have enough space and needed to keep some folks in Church St. again?  It's murky to me.  Maybe it all comes down to the number of elevator banks they could fit.  That always seems to be a huge factor.  

And the reasoning for Ally to not be HQ'd here is equally cloudy.  They were GMAC so they don't want to move from Detroit because of PR or posterity or something to that effect?  Even though all the C-suite people are here and they have a huge operation here?  I'm thankful they are investing so heavily in the city on multiple fronts, but their organization is odd to me.   But there are lots of people much smarter than me here that probably know the reasoning.  

Edited February 11, 2020 by turbocraig

[CLT2014]

1 hour ago, turbocraig said:

And the reasoning for Ally to not be HQ'd here is equally cloudy.  They were GMAC so they don't want to move from Detroit because of PR or posterity or something to that effect?  Even though all the C-suite people are here and they have a huge operation here?  I'm thankful they are investing so heavily in the city on multiple fronts, but their organization is odd to me.   But there are lots of people much smarter than me here that probably know the reasoning.  

Biggest reason HQ is in Detroit.... nearly all the core employees that drive the Dealer Financial Services business are based in Detroit, including the President of Ally Auto and the President of Ally Insurance. These two business units delivered 91% of all pre-tax income at Ally in 2019. Charlotte is a major IT hub and main hub of their bank division, but the main revenue division is in Detroit. 

Edited February 11, 2020 by CLT2014

[turbocraig]

7 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

Biggest reason HQ is in Detroit.... nearly all the core employees that drive the Dealer Financial Services business are based in Detroit, including the President of Ally Auto and the President of Ally Insurance. These two business units delivered 91% of all pre-tax income at Ally in 2019. Charlotte is a major IT hub and main hub of their bank division, but the main revenue division is in Detroit. 

Thank you for that.  Their website lists HQ as Detroit, but then "Corporate Center" as Charlotte.  So the reason the C-suite people are here is... they just like the weather?  If banking is just a small part of what they are, then why not have them in Detroit?  I feel like there were some legacy BofA people that were involved in the genesis of this.  I remember Al Demolina.  Maybe they just didn't want to move.  Like why Brian Moynihan is in NY.

[CLT2014]

13 minutes ago, turbocraig said:

Thank you for that.  Their website lists HQ as Detroit, but then "Corporate Center" as Charlotte.  So the reason the C-suite people are here is... they just like the weather?  If banking is just a small part of what they are, then why not have them in Detroit?  I feel like there were some legacy BofA people that were involved in the genesis of this.  I remember Al Demolina.  Maybe they just didn't want to move.  Like why Brian Moynihan is in NY.

Yes, essentially legacy Charlotte bank people got involved and didn't want to move. And the deposit business is very important to the company because it funds the auto loans and is important for future diversification, but the Auto team drives the revenue side of things. Hence the top leaders of the Auto businesses continue to be based in Detroit (in addition to the Chief Marketing Officer, Head of HR, et.) 

Edited February 11, 2020 by CLT2014

[KJHburg]

from twitter today bold my emphasis 

Ashley Fahey (@CBJFahey) tweeted at 1:39 PM on Tue, Feb 11, 2020: What's significant is how many employees Ally could fit in this amount of office space. If you figure ~175 sq ft/employee (rough estimate based on industry averages) in 725,000 sq ft ... that's room for more than double 1,300 employees, the amount Ally had in CLT last summer.

[Scribe]

11 hours ago, KJHburg said:

If you figure ~175 sq ft/employee (rough estimate based on industry averages) in 725,000 sq ft ... that's room for more than double 1,300 employees

at 175 sq ft / employee you can fit ~4100 employees in 725,000 sq ft of office -- that is a huge jobs announcement!

Edited February 12, 2020 by Scribe

[QClifer]

Maybe they’ll have a announcement soon  Stay tuned

[RaleighHeelsfan]

So how did they increase the SQ FT of the tower after it has already broke ground? I am confused but what that means? Does that mean the building will be taller?

[Madison Parkitect]

19 minutes ago, RaleighHeelsfan said:

So how did they increase the SQ FT of the tower after it has already broke ground? I am confused but what that means? Does that mean the building will be taller?

Once the new Duke tower is done they'll get a giant crane to pick it up and put it on top of Ally and then they'll start on a new Duke tower.

They're just leasing the entire tower now instead of part of it.

[gman430]

31 minutes ago, Madison Parkitect said:

Once the new Duke tower is done they'll get a giant crane to pick it up and put it on top of Ally and then they'll start on a new Duke tower.

They're just leasing the entire tower now instead of part of it.

What Levine also couldn’t do. 

[QCxpat]

College and Stonewall St. @ 2:30 p.m.

JW Marriott

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by QCxpat