Lobby improvements are in store for the iconic Wells Fargo Center at 1 Independent Drive Downtown.
As CBRE Group Inc. assumes leasing responsibilities from building owner Banyan Street Capital, the foliage-focused lobby will be redesigned.
CBRE Senior Vice President Kaycee Gardner, part of the leasing team, said architects are being interviewed, so specific designs have not been determined.
She said millennials are a good portion of the workforce and will make up 70 percent by 2020, “so we want to make it easier for employers to attract and retain those millennials.”
She said the team wants to develop the 37-story building like a community, offering Wi-Fi and different types of furniture, such as high-top tables and reclaimed wood, and also offer a fitness center and perhaps a game room.
She didn’t have a time frame but said the building “defines the skyline” of the city and the goal is to “transform this building to be the best in Downtown.”
The 648,307-square-foot office tower opened in 1975 as the Independent Life Building. CBRE said the lobby was last renovated in 1998.
Current tenants include Wells Fargo, the corporate headquarters for Regency Centers Corp., the Foley & Lardner LLP law firm, the IRS and The River Club on the top 34th and 35th floors.
The building is 82 percent occupied.
On the first floor is the Atrium Café & Grill. On the second floor is a 350-seat auditorium.
Also on the second floor is a 40,000-square-foot space overlooking the four-story atrium. That space could provide an 18-foot ceiling with removal of a drop ceiling, Gardner said.
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