Columbus would pay nearly $25 million for downtown Synovus offices, documents show
The City of Columbus would pay nearly $25 million to purchase five downtown properties currently owned by banking and financial services company Synovus if council members vote yes during next week’s meeting.
Documents provided to the Ledger-Enquirer Friday evening show the city would agree to purchase the property for $25 million. However, Synovus will pay the city $500,000 to rent some of the office space after the deal closes.
Synovus would vacate a majority of the buildings by July 31, 2022 and the remainder by June 30, 2024, according to city documents.
The properties will also have to be renovated for government operations. The purchase and renovations would be funded through the issuance of Columbus Building Authority Bonds of proceeds not to exceed $50 million, the document reads.
If approved, the sale is expected to close no later than March 2022.
Synovus announced the purchase agreement Friday. Under terms of the proposed transaction, the city would purchase the Uptown Center, main office, Jordan and Bradley buildings, and parking deck — approximately 250,000 square feet of office space. All of the facilities are in the block bordered by 12th Street, First Avenue and Broadway in downtown.
Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson told the Ledger-Enquirer Friday that the Synovus properties would house most of the city’s administration jobs.
The announcement comes a little more than a month before Muscogee County voters head to the polls for a special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, measure that would determine the future of the city’s judicial and government buildings.
City-hired consultants previously recommended that the city build a new 310,000 square foot courthouse and an additional parking structure on the current Government Center site. A majority of city administration would be relocated to a new building on a separate site or to available space in another building in the city. The SPLOST would fund the project.
“The buildings will be vacated and provides adequate office space needed for administrative space and the opportunity for consolidation,” the council resolution regarding the sale reads. “There is additional judicial space needed for courtrooms and support space. The administrative functions housed within the Government Center will be relocated along with offices in the Annex and other administrative functions.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 6:37 PM.
