Changes coming to Colonial Bank signs

Branch Banking & Trust Corp. will begin changing the signs at former Colonial Bank offices throughout the Gulf Coast region this weekend, leading up to what will likely be its biggest, if not highest, installation — the lettering atop Tampa's 36-story Park Tower.

The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based regional bank, which acquired Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial from receivership last summer, has hired Burton Signworks Inc. of Mount Airy, N.C., to handle the rebranding of branches and office buildings. Plastic covers bearing the BB&T logo are currently in place to reflect the bank's new identity.

At Park Tower, 400 N. Tampa St., BB&T last week signed a 10-year lease renewal for 51,000 square feet occupied by Colonial. The $11 million lease reflects somewhat lower rent than Colonial's previous contract because of changing office market conditions.

“It was a very fair deal for both parties,” Claire Calzon, Park Tower's leasing agent with Colliers Arnold in Tampa, tells Coffee Talk. She adds that BB&T negotiated directly with the building's owner, Sterling American Property Inc. of New York, without having to involve the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in the process.

Colonial gained naming rights to Park Tower when it expanded an existing lease shortly after Sterling bought the building for $50 million four years ago. The building opened in 1973 as Tampa's first modern skyscraper and was formerly called First Financial Tower and the Lykes Building.

Sign crews are expected to put BB&T's giant letters atop Park Tower around May 1, says building manager Mary Ayo. The sign for the ground-level bank branch will be replaced much sooner, she says.