Chicago-based Riverside Investment & Development plans to add a second, 43-story tower at its Queensbridge Collective project in Charlotte’s South End neighborhood, anchored by a nine-floor lease from the Moore & Van Allen law firm.
The building will be called 1111 South Tryon and is near the intersection of Tryon and Morehead streets. It is slated to be next to Riverside’s 42-story residential building, expected to be completed next year. The new building is slated to open in 2028.
Moore & Van Allen is the largest N.C.-based law firm with more than 300 lawyers. It is taking the nine top floors covering 206,000 square feet in the building, which Riverside said will include office, apartments and retail space.
The complex will include an acre of parking, outdoor green space, a 10,000-square-foot fitness center, event space and a rooftop terrace.
Queensbridge originally announced the building as a 36-story office building.
Moore & Van Allen is increasing its space by 25% compared with its current offices at Bank of America Corporate Center, and may take more space to meet its growth needs, Managing Partner Thomas Mitchell said. That 60-story building at Trade and Tryon streets in uptown Charlotte is the corporate headquarters for Bank of America, which has historically been a major client for Moore & Van Allen
“The lease provides us with the needed space to support our existing attorneys and employees at our historical rate of growth for years to come,” Mitchell said.
It’s the second large Charlotte building whose launch was sparked by a major law firm lease. In 2022, the Robinson Bradshaw firm signed a 101,000-square foot lease that helped kick off the 600 South Tryon building developed by Lincoln Harris.
Mitchell said in a release, “When we first entered the Charlotte market in Uptown 75 years ago this year, we were investing both in the future of this city and our firm. Here again, we have the incredible opportunity to invest in our growing city, find a space that sets us apart, and meet our needs well into the future.”
Charlotte Center City Partners CEO Michael Smith cast the Queensbridge project as bridging the Uptown and South End neighborhoods, “further knitting together our Central Business District.” The new building is on land that formerly was home to the Midnight Diner and Uptown Cabaret strip club.
More than 22% of Charlotte office space is vacant, a historically high level. More than 80% of the vacancies are in buildings built before 2015, the JLL real estate firm has said. In July, JLL said no new office construction was underway in the city except for a 150,000-square project in the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Still, the city led the 25 largest office markets in office job growth earlier this year, according to the Yardi research firm.
Veteran Chicago real estate executive John O’Donnell formed Riverside in 2010, He has been involved in developing more than 40 million square feet of property in his career, topping $10 billion in value. That includes 14 office towers in Chicago, where the office vacancy rate was a record 27% in June, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.
David Mildenberg is editor of Business North Carolina. Reach him at dmildenberg@businessnc.com.