Columbus Council approves deal to buy, renovate Synovus offices for nearly $50 million
The Columbus Council unanimously approved Tuesday a nearly $50 million deal to buy and renovate downtown properties currently owned by Synovus to transform it for government operations.
The city agreed to pay the Columbus-based banking and financial services firm $25 million for the Uptown Center, main office, Jordan and Bradley buildings, and a 634-space 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.
The properties will need to be renovated for its new purposes. The purchase and renovations will be funded through the issuance of roughly $50 million in Columbus Building Authority Bonds. There’s no expected increase in millage rates beginning in 2023, according to council documents.
Synovus would vacate a majority of the buildings by July 31, 2022, and the remainder by June 30, 2024. Synovus will pay the city $500,000 to rent some of the office space after the deal closes. The sale is expected to close no later than March 1, 2022.
Both measures regarding the deal were approved by a 9-0 vote. Councilor Glenn Davis was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
“It’s a win-win-win in my mind,” said Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson.
The deal, and what’s next for Synovus?
The proposed deal was first announced by both parties Friday, though city leaders first approached Synovus about purchasing properties in March 2021, according to a fact sheet regarding the deal.
Councilor Judy Thomas told Henderson and City Manager Isaiah Hugley that residents have expressed concern that the matter was being put to a vote quickly after being announced and without giving the public a chance to provide feedback.
In response, both Henderson and Hugley said there’s been discussion of moving government operations to a new location for the past few years. Council members were informed of progress on the deal during executive sessions. Henderson said announcing possible locations before a deal was struck would have hurt negotiations.
“This council has directed staff to do a thorough vetting of every single opportunity out there,” Henderson said. “Frankly, we ended up with the purchase because we took a look at the cost to build, (and) we are probably still going to be under 50% (what) new construction costs per square foot.”
The deal also gives Synovus a chance to make some changes.
The Columbus company plans to consolidate its nine Uptown locations into two possible locations and one downtown branch that will include a drive-through by the first half of 2024. A new Synovus office facility in downtown is expected to be completed in May 2024, according to a purchase sale agreement fact sheet.
Synovus CEO Kevin Blair said more about the company’s plans could be released next month.
“We started two years ago with a view of consolidating real estate, not just in Columbus but across our footprint,” Blair said of the sale. “This was an alternative that we looked at very early on. We didn’t know whether there would be a purchaser of the property. So more recently, when the city expressed interest, we moved very quickly because we felt like it was a win-win situation.”
New judicial center
The purchase comes almost a month before Muscogee County voters head to the polls for a special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, measure that would fund a new courthouse.
In a late June presentation to Columbus councilors, city-hired consultants recommended that a new 310,000-square-foot judicial center be built with a majority of city administration being housed elsewhere.
An estimated $400 million would be collected over a roughly nine-year period through a SPLOST. Roughly $200 million in general obligation bonds would be issued for the Judicial Center. Council approved the list of SPLOST projects in late July. The Synovus buildings will house most of the city administration, including the mayor’s office, the city manager’s office, human resources and other key offices.
Flooding and safety issues at the current Government Center have been well documented in recent years. Issues included leaking pipes, which led to a June 2017 Columbus Council vote to approve $350,000 for emergency pipe repairs.
Multiple floods in 2018 led the Columbus Council to use $1.1 million in insurance settlement funds to repair damage to courtrooms as well as $2.5 million in bonds issued by the Columbus Building Authority to address safety issues in the building. Another $1 million was approved to plan, engineer and assess for a new building to replace the Government Center.
This is a breaking story and will be updated. L-E archives were used in this report.
This story was originally published September 28, 2021 at 7:15 PM.