AXA Financial to Relocate to Innovation Park; CharlotteLaw Secures Uptown Lease

By Eliza Theiss, Associate Editor

AXA Financial Inc. has signed a lease for about 140,000 square feet in Innovation Park and will relocate in May 2014 from its current offices at Ballantyne Corporate Park. The New York-based company currently leases 169,912 square feet at 10840 Ballantyne Commons Parkway and has been a major tenant of the business park since 1999.

AXA consolidated its operations in Charlotte after closing a service center in New York and operations facilities in Des Moines, Iowa, and Fresno, Calif. The company employs approximately 600 at its life-insurance operations and service center.

The Bissell Cos., Ballantyne’s developer and current owner, has already put AXA’s building Rushmore One on the market.

Before deciding on Innovation Park, AXA searched for a suitable location not only in the Charlotte area, but also across state lines. According to the Charlotte Business Journal, one of the locations considered for the move was EdgeWater Corporate Center in northern Lancaster County.

1.9 million-square-foot Innovation Park, formerly known as Meridian Corporate Center, has been under the ownership of Rockville, Md.-based BECO Management since 2010, when BECO bought the campus for $42 million—a steep discount price. It has since spent a reported $30 million in upgrades and renovations to the campus that currently features extensive parking, a 125-seat conference room, Wi-Fi, climate-controlled storage facilities, a courtyard lounge, a bicycle-sharing program, a 7,000-square-foot fitness center, electric car charging stations, a food bar and bistro restaurant.

Both AXA Financial and BECO Management are represented by Jones Lang LaSalle. AXA Financial is a member of the global AXA Group, a France-based company focused on financial protection and wealth management.

In other leasing news, Charlotte School of Law has confirmed the leasing of 40,000 square feet of uptown office space at the Gateway Center, this according to the Charlotte Business Journal. CharlotteLaw will use the Gateway space starting in the fall of 2012. The leased space will house the offices of first-year course professors and 10 classrooms for first-year courses. CharlotteLaw will feature the same technologies uptown as it uses at its main campus in Bryant Park. A free shuttle will transport students and faculty between uptown and campus.

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