One of the largest financial institutions in North America is lending a hefty boost to Charlotte, North Carolina's office market after committing to a deal that will more than triple its corporate presence in the area.
TD Bank, a subsidiary of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank, signed a 10-year deal for just shy of 91,500 square feet at the Harris Building in the city's Ballantyne area, the company confirmed. The agreement represents the latest in a string of leases the Charlotte area has landed in recent months that have helped propel the market back toward pre-pandemic levels of activity and solidified its standing as one of the nation's strongest financial capitals.
For TD Bank, the deal means it will play a game of musical chairs with two Northwood Investors-owned Ballantyne buildings. The company has been leasing a little more than 18,500 square feet in the Irby Building at 11325 N. Community House Road for about a decade, but plans to hop across the corporate park to its new space starting in July next year.
"Charlotte continues to grow in population and top talent, and our TD employee base in the region also has expanded in recent years," Chris Ward, a TD Bank regional president and the head of small business banking in the United States, said in a statement. He added that the city "is a vibrant area for our colleagues," and the expanded office will help deepen the bank's ties within the area while supporting its future growth and investments there.
The firm's new address at 13024 Ballantyne Corporate Place can accommodate as many as 540 employees, significantly more than the roughly 110 people in its current space.
Dominant tenant base
Unlike major U.S. markets facing a cobweb-ridden development pipeline, Charlotte experienced an unprecedented burst of new construction that has collectively added about 6 million square feet of top-quality office space over the past five years.
Of that total, about 1.2 million square feet was completed last year alone, creating a particularly challenging environment for developers competing for a smaller, post-pandemic pool of tenants with plenty of options to choose from.
However, there's an emerging sense of urgency among companies that are weighing expansions or the chance to swap out their current space for a nicer option. While vacancy is still stuck at a record high of more than 14%, new leasing volume across the country is beginning to resemble pre-pandemic averages, the bulk of which has been concentrated among premium office properties.
Financial institutions such as TD Bank have led the recent burst of activity across the Charlotte area.
Cryptocurrency platform Coinbase recently chose a Shorenstein Properties-owned building to establish a corporate foothold in the Charlotte area, long regarded as one of the nation's most established financial hubs. Others such as SouthState Bank, Trimont, AssetMark, Citigroup and First Horizon have also recently signed deals to upgrade their office spaces, expand their regional footprints, or, similar to TD Bank, ink agreements that accomplish both.
Job growth across the financial and professional services industries is expected to bolster that leasing momentum, helping to drive new leasing activity as demand among new-to-market tenants and existing ones has steadily climbed throughout the year.
Companies have collectively signed on for more space than they've offloaded for the past four consecutive quarters, according to CoStar data, a streak the Charlotte market hasn't been able to hit since 2018.