Wachovia sale alters Charlotte business landscape

Instead, only Wall Street's pain came to Charlotte's Tryon Street.

Crushed by its disastrous 2006 acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial Corp., Wachovia succumbed Monday to the global financial crisis, agreeing to sell its banking operations to New York's Citigroup Inc. for a mere $2.1 billion in a deal arranged by federal regulators.

Yes, Bank of America Corp. still stands on Tryon Street and is now one of the "Big Three" U.S. banks. But the Wachovia collapse leaves Charlotte bracing for the worst--the loss of thousand of high-paying bank jobs that helped turn the state's largest city into a booming center of the New South.

"We've been on the winning end of a countless number of bank transactions over the last 25 years," said Tony Plath, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "And that has translated into new jobs and homes and construction. Now, we're on the losing end. This is a big loss for the city."

For years, it was Bank of America and Wachovia playing the aggressor, making deal after deal--including the 2001 merger of First Union and Wachovia that led to the modern-day bank--as they worked to create a second Wall Street on Tryon. Wachovia has 120,000 employees nationwide, including 20,000 in Charlotte.

The banks' imprint dominates the city.

Wachovia sponsors the city's annual PGA tournament, among the most popular on tour, while Bank of America's name is on the football stadium. Both fill towering downtown office buildings--Wachovia is building a 48-story headquarters and adjoining city arts campus. The bankers and traders who work for both helped created the demand for the high-rise condos nearby.

"The economic and political dynamics of the Charlotte business community will change, because in the past (Bank of America) and Wachovia tried to one-up each other," said Michael Walden, an economics professor at North Carolina State University. "That's indicated by the buildings they constructed. Both were very active in local civic affairs."

In the lobbies of those downtown's towers, there was a sense of disbelief Monday as Wachovia employees huddled, whispered and shared the latest gossip. Workers outside smoked cigarettes and talked on cell phones, trying to find out if there would be layoffs.