Charlotte Is Turning a Nearly Empty Office Tower Into 399 Apartments and a W Hotel
A Charlotte office tower once mostly empty is being converted into hundreds of apartments and the city’s first W Hotel, marking a shift in downtown use. The redevelopment transforms nearly 600,000 square feet of office space into residential and hotel areas, highlighting a trend toward mixed-use urban properties amid changing work habits.
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A Charlotte office tower that fell into foreclosure with most of its space empty is getting a radically different second life.
The former Wachovia Center at 400 South Tryon will become 399 apartments and Charlotte’s first W Hotel, replacing nearly 600,000 square feet of aging office space with residents, hotel guests, restaurants and entertainment.
The 34-story tower was purchased for $36 million in 2025 after falling into foreclosure. At the time, it was only about 23% occupied.
Now its transformation offers a glimpse of what may happen to more downtown office buildings across the Sun Belt.
From offices to bedrooms
The W Charlotte will occupy the first nine floors, with 173 guest rooms, 27 suites and a penthouse.
Plans also include a ground-floor restaurant and coffee bar, ballroom, 12,000 square feet of meeting space and an 18,000-square-foot venue on the 34th floor that is expected to become Charlotte’s highest rooftop bar.
The remaining floors will become 399 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units.
The conversion will also dramatically change the exterior of the 1970s tower, giving a building long associated with Charlotte’s banking era a new identity on the skyline.
Construction is expected to take about 30 to 32 months, putting completion around 2029.
Charlotte has plenty of offices
The project addresses a problem that has become familiar in American downtowns.
Charlotte continues to attract employers, but companies increasingly favor newer office buildings with modern amenities. Older towers have been much harder to fill since hybrid work reduced the amount of space many employers need.
The Charlotte metro office vacancy rate was 23.9% this summer. The problem is particularly acute in older buildings.
Rather than compete for another generation of office tenants, 400 South Tryon is leaving the office market entirely.
And it is not alone. Across the street, the former Two Wells Fargo Center at 301 South Tryon is also being remade. Plans there call for 275 apartments, 200 hotel rooms, retail space and a smaller amount of retained office space.
Another older Uptown office property, 200 North College, is being converted into apartments and ground-floor commercial space.
A downtown where people stay after 5
For decades, Uptown Charlotte grew around banking and office employment. Workers arrived in the morning and much of the district revolved around what happened during the business day.
Hybrid work disrupted that model. The response increasingly involves adding the one thing an office district cannot lose at the end of the workday: residents.
Apartments put people downtown seven days a week. Hotels bring visitors. Restaurants and entertainment give both groups reasons to remain on the street after offices close.
Charlotte Center City Partners has been pushing that broader transition as Uptown becomes less exclusively dependent on commuters.
The W project is an unusually visible example. A building that once represented Charlotte’s office economy went into foreclosure after losing most of its tenants.
Its next chapter will contain almost no offices at all. Instead, hundreds of people will call it home, hundreds more will sleep there as visitors, and the top floor will become a rooftop destination overlooking a downtown that is itself learning how to live beyond the workday.
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