CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1378006
CityViewNC.com | 19 FayettevilleNC.gov/recycling e 168-foot-high edifice dates to 1973 when it was completed for $3 million, according to online sources. Many people recognize the 11-floor structure as the old Wachovia Building, which encompasses a total of 110,000 square feet from top to bottom and presently is home to about 35 tenants and 300 employees. "We have a combination of state, federal and commercial tenants," she said. "e IRS takes up a whole floor." Smith anticipates an eventual cost of about $3 million to complete the proposed improvements to the Systel Building. At this time, the construction work has entered phase three of the projected four-phase project. "e big phase is about to start on the upper floors," she said. "A lot of that is big expenditures on the core and mechanical systems in what we call our penthouse. at heats and cools the entire building. at's where we project significant improvements to make the building more energy efficient." e fih and eighth floors – both about 10,000 square feet each – are being overhauled for new, more modern office space for the 21st- century business world. Fortunately, a couple of tenants with the state who took up entire floors moved out, emptying those floors. at gave construction crews the opportunity to fully gut them with the new plans in mind. "It gave us the chance to redesign the bathroom layout, the corridors, the hallways, and let in natural light," Smith said. e work will open space for five new meeting rooms on an extra meeting room floor. Previously, Systel featured only one meeting room floor. "Hopefully," she added, "commercial tenants will utilize the amenities of the building more. We've had the building for a while. And we've done some updates along the way but not in a way to entice newer tenants." Sf L+a Architects in downtown Fayetteville was contracted to oversee much of the building design and development. Since the start, the project has seen a lot of involvement from different parties, Smith said, which is important to her family to collaborate with architects, vendors and other people "who know and understand downtown Fayetteville."