Two big Fort Mill office buildings off I-77 would be demolished under new plan

Two large, multi-story office buildings near Interstate 77 in Fort Mill could be demolished to make way for warehouses.

Foundry Commercial applied to rezone 32 acres at 3476, 3480 and 3560 Stateview Blvd. for light industrial use. The Lakemont East properties near Carowinds include Wells Fargo Home Mortgage buildings. A concept plan submitted to York County planners shows three new buildings that would replace the offices, at almost 460,000 square feet combined.

That construction would be about 33% larger than the office space there now.

The York County planning commission held a light discussion on the proposal Monday night before unanimously recommending in favor of the rezoning.

York County Council will make that final decision. Further details on the new construction would come when the property owner submits plans for it that have to go through the civil review process, said county planning manager Diane Dil.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage site

One of the existing buildings was completed in 2002. Dallas, Texas-based Lexington Fort Mill LLC bought the three-story, almost 172,000-square-foot structure from Charlotte-based Crescent Resources (now Crescent Communities) in December of that year for more than $17.9 million.

Lexington Fort Mill is affiliated with real estate developer LXP Industrial Trust.

A second building immediately north of the first one opened in 2004. It’s the same size, and the same parties are listed as buyer and seller. That building, though, sold for almost $29 million.

Wells Fargo moved its home mortgage service center to Fort Mill in 2002. By 2007 the company had about 2,000 employees in Fort Mill when it announced 250 job cuts amid housing market changes. Wells Fargo was one of the top three largest employers in the county at the time.

In late 2008 Wells Fargo announced an undisclosed but “small number” of employees at the Fort Mill mortgage center would lose their jobs ahead of the bank’s planned purchase of Wachovia Corp. The mortgage center had about 1,600 workers at that time, according to a Charlotte Observer report then.

Fort Mill represented most of the bank’s South Carolina workforce before Wells Fargo had any branches on the East Coast.

Several shifts in staffing followed.

In late 2015 the bank announced 350 mortgage servicing positions would move from uptown Charlotte to Fort Mill. Yet Wells Fargo also began a series of WARN reports that year impacting hundreds of jobs. A WARN report is notice given when large companies plan significant layoffs or closures.

From 2015 to 2018 Wells Fargo issued eight WARN reports for its Fort Mill operations. The first six, listed as closures, impacted 305 jobs. The last two involved 188 layoffs.

Wells Fargo employees moved out of the buildings earlier this year, spokesman Josh Dunn said in an email Tuesday. “This was a real estate consolidation — no jobs were eliminated in this move,” Dunn said.

Wells Fargo announces new round of layoffs in Charlotte area

New Fort Mill construction details

Much of the area around Carowinds, both on the South Carolina and North Carolina side, have industrial or warehousing space.

Several spec buildings have popped up in recent years. Last fall, the largest property sale on record in York County involved $106 million of industrial space near Carowinds.

The county recommends the rezoning for the latest project because plans fit what already is on the ground, Dil said.

A $106 million sale sets new high mark for properties in the Rock Hill region

A concept plan isn’t binding, but one submitted to county planners shows what could come after demolition of the office buildings. Two larger buildings would face the interstate. One would be almost 196,000 square feet, and the other would be 173,000 square feet.

The buildings would have a similar configuration to the office buildings but take up much more of the parking space. The industrial construction would have much less parking, but a much larger footprint compared to the offices.

The property would have six entrances off Stateview. Behind the two large front buildings, a smaller building at 90,000 square feet would have retention ponds beside it. That building would back up to a 60-acre manufacturing site that borders the North Carolina line.

All those properties sit next to the Carowinds Boulevard exit on the interstate.