Commercial Confidential: Carillon

Editor’s note: “Commercial Confidential” is a Mecklenburg Times profile of a commercial property in the Charlotte area. 

When the Carillon building first made an appearance on Charlotte’s skyline in 1991, Anne Vulcano said, it was considered out of the way.

Vulcano, senior vice president in the Charlotte office of CBRE, which handles the leasing of Carillon, said the Trade Street location, as well as the timing of the project, made filling the office space difficult in the building’s early days.

“It wasn’t as logical a location as it seems right now,” Vulcano said.

But as Charlotte’s Central Business District expanded, Carillon, which is less than two blocks from the city’s center, became closer to the middle of the uptown office action. And the occupancy rates have responded in kind, Vulcano said.

In the early 1990s, she said, occupancy rates were consistently below 70 percent – poor for an uptown office tower. Then, in the late ‘90s, Vulcano said, occupancy started to turn around. It broke the 70-percent barrier in ’98, and today it’s higher still.

“We’re about 80 percent leased right now,” Vulcano said. “But we have leases out that could drive that rate up to the low 90s.”

Vulcano said her leasing strategy often involves stressing the building’s design.

“The bones of that building are huge part of the leasing,” she said. “It’s got a gorgeous lobby, it occupies an entire city block, it has always appealed to higher-end, professional firms.

“It looks modern, but it also has a very elegant, stately appearance.”

Another factor that entices prospective tenants: relatively low rents for a Class A office building.

Rents at the Carillon are between $24.50 and $26.50 per square foot, depending on the deal, Vulcano said. Comparatively, Class A rents in the downtown market average $27.64, according to Charlotte-based Karnes Co.

Despite the “elegant” design and the lower rents, Carillon still hasn’t been able to escape its Trade Street address, which Vulcano said comes with a bit of a stigma.

“Some people are still interested in having that Tryon Street address, but we’re on Trade,” she said. “Being on Tryon Street may seem prestigious to companies from out of town, but local companies don’t find that address helps a lot.”

GUION can be reached at [email protected], (704) 817-1344 or on Twitter at @paytonguion.

Building name: Carillon

Address: 227 W. Trade St.

Square feet: 471,000

Year built: 1991

Developer: Hesta Properties

Owner: Hines

Leasing company: CBRE

Lease rates: $24.50-$26.50

Vacancy rate: 20 percent

Major tenants and square feet occupied: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft (40,000); GSA (38,000); Crescent Resources (30,000)

Did you know? Carillon was under construction at the same time as Bank of America Corporate Center, the city’s tallest building.