The new high-rise once destined to house Wachovia's headquarters in Uptown will now be named Duke Energy Center. The power company negotiated the right to have its name in lights on the new tower by doubling the amount of space it will occupy when construction is complete next year.
Twenty-one of the 48 floors will be Duke's new corporate headquarters. Duke Energy spokesman Tom Shiel says the additional space opened up when Wachovia was bought up by Wells Fargo.
"Basically what we're doing is we're replacing leases that are due to expire in other facilities in uptown Charlotte," says Sheil. "We own or lease roughly 1.3 million square feet of space in Charlotte."
About 3,000 Duke employees work uptown. Shiel says Duke Energy has no plans to purchase the new building from Wells Fargo. As for Duke's existing headquarters building on South Church Street, Shiel says that, too, will continue to house Duke operations.