Bank of America – United Community Bank behind proposed $30M investment in downtown Greenville | Greenville Business

GREENVILLE — A northeast Georgia bank that has steadily expanded its South Carolina business through a series of buyouts since 2015 will soon up the ante considerably.

United Community Bank is lined up for a property-tax break, up for final approval Tuesday, that if passed will entice the bank to invest up to $30 million within a 2-acre morsel of prime real estate in downtown Greenville. The deal requires that the bank hire 225 new employees, adding to the hundreds of people who already work for them in Greenville.

The Blairsville, Ga.-based bank was unmasked in a Greenville County Council agenda on Friday as the investment party that had been nicknamed “Project Spruce” in county documents related to the development since October.

Bank officials were unable to comment publicly on Friday.

The site for the investment is 222 E. Camperdown Way, where an office building currently houses the Wyche law firm. 

Located within the city’s central business district, the site’s zoning designation — C-4 — has no height restrictions and the highest density allowances under the city’s development code. It and a handful of parcels on the east side of Falls Street are among the only open lots remaining on the downtown’s east side.

Public documents show the Wyche firm sold the 1.93-acre parcel at 222 E. Camperdown for $5.75 million on Dec. 18 to United Community Banks, but whether the bank was the final party lined up to invest in the site was unclear until Friday. 

The Post and Courier has reached out to Wyche for comment as well.

The Wyche firm continues for the present to operate at 222 E. Camperdown Way. The lawyers have been working there for about two years. Wyche’s previous headquarters of 58 years — 44 E. Camperdown Way, next door — was razed in 2019 to make way for The Grand Bohemian Hotel, now under construction.

More details about United Community Bank’s intentions for the downtown site will likely be released at Tuesday’s County Council meeting when members cast a third and final vote on the company’s tax break. According to county documents, the site is being placed in a multi-county industrial park to reduce its annual commercial property-tax burden.

According to federal records, the largest bank by deposits currently headquartered in South Carolina is Greenville-based Southern First Bank, which is building a new headquarters on Laurens Road. Should United Community Bank move its headquarters to Greenville from its current home in Blairsville, Ga., it would take Southern First’s place as the largest bank headquartered in the Palmetto State.

United Community Bank operates in three locations around downtown Greenville with executive offices on Broad Street, in the former Palmetto Bank office building on East North Street, and in the ONE building at West Washington and Main streets. Across the state of South Carolina, it has more than 30 branch offices.

United Community Bank’s chief executive officer is longtime Greenville banker Lynn Harton. Harton previously served as CEO of Greenville-based South Financial Group, which operated as “Carolina First,” before it was taken over by TD Bank in 2010. He joined United Community Bank in 2012, has continued to live in Greenville and became United Community Bank’s CEO in 2017.

United Community Bank has been beefing up its footprint in South Carolina since 2015, when it completed its $241 million acquisition of the Upstate’s Palmetto Bank, then the third-largest financial institution headquartered in the state.

In 2016, it set its sights on the coast by purchasing the ailing Mount Pleasant-based Tidelands Bank, giving it four offices in the Charleston region, two in Myrtle Beach and one in the Hilton Head market.

It expanded its Grand Strand presence in late July 2017 by acquiring the Loris-based parent of Horry County State Bank in a deal valued at $66 million.

In terms of market share, United Community Bank stood at ninth in South Carolina as of June 2020, according to federal records. Bank of America and Wells Fargo remain at the top of the heap in terms of market share for both South Carolina and, locally, Greenville County.

Nathaniel Cary and John McDermott contributed to this report.

Follow Anna B. Mitchell on Twitter at @AnnaBard2U.