One Independence Center is a high-rise office building located in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. It was completed in 1983 and stands at a height of 301 ft (92 m) with 20 floors. It is the seventh largest building in Charlotte by leasable square feet with 565,694 square feet. It sits on the former site of the Independence Building at Charlotte's Independence Square.
History
The building was finished in 1983. It is the site of the former Independence Building which was constructed in 1909, it was demolished in September 1981. At its opening The Independence Building with 12 floors was the tallest building in North Carolina.
The developers Faison firm and Williams Realty of Tulsa, Oklahoma announced in October 1981 the specifics of the building. It was planned to contain with of retail space. NCNB, now Bank of America, planned to lease on floors 2 - 10. The building was built diagonal from NCNB Plaza, the bank headquarters in 1981. Therefore, the building was planned to be an extension of the bank's headquarters. The building was forecasted to cost $48 million.
NCNB planned to consolidate its corporate services from a building it purchased in 1970 and the of additional leased space into the building. The bank moved 700 employees into the building in August 1983. At the time this accounted for about a third of the bank's 2,300 local employees. Other tenants began to occupy floors 10 - 20 in September 198.
In October 1983 Smith Barney Harris Upham & Co. Inc., a stock brokerage, left NCNB Plaza. Insurance broker Alexander and Alexander moved from Wachovia Center. Later in the month Brooks Fashion opened a store in the building. Wheat, First Securities Inc., a stock brokerage moved from a space at Northwestern building. Fashion store The Limited opened a store.
In November 1983 law firm Fleming, Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson signed a lease for on the top two floors. Previously the firm had leased on two floors at First Union Plaza. At that time the building was 70% leased. Then later in the same month 3 new tenants signed leases to bring the building to 75% leased. The companies include Chubb & Sons, an insurance underwriting firm, leasing 9,000 square feet on the 17th floor; Sterling Capital Management Co, an investment counseling firm, leasing 5,400 on the 17th floor; and Grier and Grier, a law firm, leased 2,200 square feet on the 2nd floor.
In August 1996 Cousins Properties announced it had reached an agreement to purchase the building for $69.3 million. The sale was finalized in December. Part of the announcement was possibility of also creating a $300 million uptown basketball and entertainment complex composed of four blocks of Uptown. Cousins announced in December 1997 that it would remodel the building lobby
In March 1998 building tenant Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson announced a $1 million makeover of their current of space and the addition of of space. At the time of the announcement the company had 225 employees occupying the space. American Financial Realty Trust purchased the building in September 2004 for $100 million from Cousins Properties Inc. Local property management company Colliers Pinkard was hired to handle leasing. The building was 92% occupied at the time of the sale with Bank of America Corp. and the Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson law firm as the anchor tenants.
In June 2011 law firm Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson signed a 10-year renewal for . They firm occupied the top 5 floors. At the time of signing the renewal they had 125 local employees and were the second largest law firm in Charlotte after Moore & Van Allen.
In October 2011 Northeastern University opened its Charlotte with in the building for offices and classrooms. The school's goal was to eventually have 2,000 enrolled in the Charlotte campus. Classes began in January 2012.
LRC Properties and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors purchased 101 Independence Center from previous owner KBS Capital Advisors and Gramercy Property Trust in 2015 for $108 million. At the time it was 84% occupied with Bank of America as the largest occupant with . In August 2015 Bank of America vacated across four floors. Accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen vacated the tenth floor earlier in 2015 which left of continuous space available. Few buildings in Uptown Charlotte at that time had that amount of continuous space available.
In September 2015 Stewart Engineering signed a lease for on the 14th floor. The company relocated their employees from BB&T Center to the space in early 2015.