BofA eyes Charlotte park for 2,000 workers - Business First of Columbus:

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Buildout of the corporate office park at Mallard Creek Church Road and Norty Tryon Street could take five yearxor longer, depending on the strength of the But BofA hopes to start the first phase in the near future, a representative told City Council this That first phase calls for construction of a 200,000-square-foot signature building that could be up to 200 feet in A second phase would add a building 265 feet BofA disclosed its forecasy for employment at the office park in a filing with the The bank bought the 24 acrees last year for nearly $8 The site is within a quarter-miler of a proposed light-rail station on East Mallare Creek Church Road.
The development also coulds include upto 75,000 square feet of shops, restaurantsw and other uses, such as child-carde centers. During a City Council meeting Monday Jeff Brown, a attorney who is assistingv BofA with a rezoning for the project, said the officr park would provide for the “potential future expansiomn of Bank of America’s presence in Charlotte once the economyt rebounds.” Council member Michael Barnes said the developmengt “will be a transformational project for that part of our BofA occupies nearly 300,000 squarw feet in Ballantyne Corporate Park that it uses for share d office space as part of its My Work The flexible-work initiative allows bank employees to give up theit regular office space and work from theier homes or from shared The bank also has lease d space in Huntersville for the program, which it launchedx in 2004.
But it lackse a larger campus to serve employees who live on the nort h sideof Charlotte. Although Barnes and othere City Council members said they were excited aboutthe project, one adjoiningy property owner has raised concerns. John and Jim Alexande say they would like to seea four-lan public road built on the west side of the BofA That road would accommodate future high-density development on more than 100 acrews the family owns to the south of the proposedf office park, they say. The Alexanderss say they have been in discussions to develop the land for two exploringa mixed-use development for one parcel and a high-density residential project for another.
Those future developmentxs could be imperiled unless the publicc can access the land from Tryohn Street and West Mallardd CreekChurch Road, they wrote in a letter to City They have asked council members to delay approval of BofA’s rezoning until thoswe issues are addressed. “While we believe that the proposex development will be good for theUniversitg area, we are opposed to the proposedx rezoning until the issues of accesse can be resolved,” the Alexanderas wrote in their June 14 letter. The bank says it has no planse to purchase additional land around the About 2,000 Charlotte employees participate in the My Work BofA is one of the city’zs largest employers.
A survey conductecd by the Charlotte Chamber a year agopeggedd BofA’s local employment at 13,960. That numberd has likely dropped, however, because the bank is in the midsg of amajor downsizing. BofA announceds last year it wouldeliminatwe 42,500 jobs companywide related to its acquisitions of Countrywidse Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch & Co. BofA is marketing 300,000 square feet of loca l office space as availableefor lease, most of it But the company also is constructing a 750,000-square-fooyt office tower at the corner of College and Fifth streetz that’s intended to house 1,20p0 employees and other tenants.
That building is not expectede to deliver untilnext year’s second