Company to move 500 employees into downtown Columbus development Riverfront Place
A homegrown banking and financial services firm will move approximately half of its Columbus employees into a new downtown development.
Synovus President and CEO Kevin Blair announced during a news conference Tuesday that the company will be the first major tenant committed to moving into the W.C. Bradley Company’s Riverfront Place, 1301 Broadway.
Phases 3 and 4 of the complex overlooking the Chattahoochee River will comprise a multistory office building, a multifamily residential building, retail space and a parking garage on the vacant land next to Country’s Barbecue between 13th and 14th streets. Those buildings will total 1.1 million square feet on the east side of Front Avenue.
Phases 1 and 2 of Riverfront Place on the west side of Front Avenue produced The Rapids apartments, Hotel Indigo and Mathews D. Swift Park, named after the retired W.C. Bradley Real Estate president, who led the vision for the project that began in 2016.
Combined, the four phases of Riverfront Place will total an investment of more than $250 million in downtown Columbus, said Jim Hillenbrand, W.C. Bradley’s president and CEO.
Synovus plan for new offices
The Columbus Council in September agreed to purchase four buildings and a parking garage from Synovus for $25 million. Another $25 million was set aside for renovations to the Synovus buildings, called Uptown Center, bordered by 12th Street, First Avenue and Broadway. The Columbus Consolidated Government is paying for the project through Columbus Building Authority bonds.
CCG will move some city offices into Uptown Center as a new $200 million judicial complex is built to replace the Government Center. The city government will fund that project with revenue from the approximately $400 million it plans to raise through the 1% Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax local voters approved in November for roughly 10 years.
Blair previously told the L-E that the company was looking to consolidate its real estate holdings. When the city approached them to buy the Uptown Center, Synovus agreed.
Under the terms of the deal, Synovus will vacate a majority of the Uptown Center buildings by July 31, 2022, and the remainder by June 30, 2024. Synovus agreed to pay the city $500,000 to rent some of the office space after the deal closes.
Synovus has approximately 500 employees working in three downtown office locations — Uptown Center, Synovus Centre and the Riverfront Building, plus three banks branches — out of 970 employees total in the Columbus area.
Synovus plans to move out of the Uptown Center this summer and temporarily move into excess space within the company’s Columbus and Phenix City footprints while waiting for their offices to open in RIverfront Place.
Synovus plans to move into 120,000 square feet over five floors of Riverfront Place’s 230,000-square-foot office building in mid-2024. The building will be called Riverfront Center and serve as the corporate headquarters for Synovus. The company will move out of Synovus Centre, which it leases from W.C. Bradley. Synovus also plans to consolidate its three downtown bank branches into a new branch, covering 3,000 square feet, along with a drive-thru, at Riverfront Place.
Amenities for Synovus employees in Riverfront Place will include an in-house cafe, fitness center with showers, greenspace and EV charging stations.
Synovus announcing a 15-year lease with two 10-year renewal options in W.C. Bradley Company’s newest development adds up to “an incredible day for Columbus, Georgia,” Mayor Skip Henderson said at the news conference. He thanked the companies for “their vision and their commitment to this community.”
The consolidation will reduce the Synovus locations in downtown Columbus from nine to two: Riverfront Center in Riverfront Place and the existing Riverfront Building at 33 11th St.
As a result, Blair said, Synovus will gain greater workspace efficiency and synergy and its clients will gain a state-of-the-art branch bank.
“We are grateful to the W.C. Bradley Company for the transformational and economically beneficial development work they continue to do on behalf of our community,” Blair said in a news release.
W.C. Bradley Real Estate president and chief operating officer Pace Halter noted W.C. Bradley developed the current Synovus headquarters in 2002.
“We are excited the company will once again call a W.C. Bradley Company development home,” Halter said in the news release. “Having the bank renew its commitment to Uptown Columbus is a significant step in the continued growth of the City of Columbus and the overall region. The development in Columbus has been exceptional in recent years, and we are confident these last two phases will continue to drive growth for the community.”
Artist renderings for Phases 3 and 4 of Riverfront Place
Phases 3 and 4 of Riverfront Place are designed to maintain “the streetscape continuity with entry and retail components of comparable scale to the context with modulated storefronts and complimentary materials throughout,” the company says in its application to the Uptown Facade Board, which approved the plan last month.
“Traditional materials,” such as clay brick with accents of steel, stucco and precast concrete will be used in the construction to “evoke the industrial heritage of the local vernacular,” the description says. “A variety of glass storefronts brickwork and canopies continue the uptown character for the pedestrian experience while complimenting a large portion of the Riverwalk area and further enhancing the Columbus Uptown area and experience.”
The renderings are by the architecture firm Rule, Joy, Trammell and Rubio of Atlanta.
W.C. Bradley also is constructing a parking garage on the site.
Staff writer Nick Wooten contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 1:17 PM.
