BB&T Center

The BB&T Center is a 300ft tall office skyscraper in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was built in 1975 and has 22 floors.HistoryRodney Little of Little & Co. said that in 1975, Overstreet Mall, based on a Minneapolis design, was expected to be a big success as concern began about retailers moving to the suburbs. For this reason, Southern National Center did not face a major street, but was intended to be part of a network of bridges between office buildings and major stores such as Belk and Ivey's. Another reason for locating along College Street was the concern Tryon Street would run out of space. However, in the 1980s, the Charlotte City Council decided to limit additional walkways, and the uptown Belk and Ivey's closed by the end of the decade.Southern National Center was the home to the Charlotte headquarters of Southern Bell from 1975 to 1995. When BellSouth, the successor company to Southern Bell, moved to 16-story BellSouth Plaza in 1995, Little & Co. made plans for a $10 million renovation to attract new tenants. The merger of Southern National Bank and BB&T, which resulted in a name change to BB&T Center, meant BB&T increased its space to 59,000sqft, and NationsBank took 285,000sqft, but 166181sqft still remained vacant. Among the building's problems: most of the floor space had been designed specifically for Southern Bell, and the lobby was on the third floor due to the Overstreet Mall. An advantage was the 1500-space parking deck inside.