Center Point groundbreaking looms
It sounded like a delicious piece of pie in the sky when Greensboro developer Roy Carroll announced months ago intentions of turning the old Wachovia Building downtown into a luxury high-rise of condos, offices and a ground-floor restaurant.
The building has stood vacant for about 16 years. Another potential buyer had backed out of a deal for the building. And there was fear Carroll might too once he saw all that was involved in conventing the building, completed in the mid 1960s.
But Carroll will make believers out of doubters Thursay at 2 p.m. when he holds the official "ground breaking" at the corner of North Elm Elm and West Friendly Avenue. Ground breaking may be the wrong word because Carroll will work with the structure already there. He'll make radical changes,however, including adding balconies for future condo dwellers.
And forget the name Old Wachovia Building. Wachovia moved out in the early 1990s to Renaissance Plaza up the street and has since moved again to the former First Union Towers at Bellemeade and North Greene streets, after Wachovia and First Union banks merged. The name Wachovia prevailed from the merger. First Union Tower is now Wachovia Tower.
The new name of the Old Wachovia will be Center Pointe because of its location across the street from the new Center City Park nearing completion in the block bounded by North Elm, East Friendly Avenue and North Davie Street.