Editor's note: Story corrects and updates information about the representation of the former Wachovia building and its owners. 

An improving housing market and continued demand for new mortgages are prompting a Hampton Roads, Va.-based bank to expand its mortgage division into the Port City.

TowneBank Mortgage plans to open its sixth division, locating it at the former Wachovia Bank building, 6770 Parker Farm Drive in Mayfaire.

Jackie Amato, CEO of TowneBank Mortgage, said Thursday the firm has hired 20 employees but has plans to quickly grow its new Wilmington location to exceed 60 employees.

The banking firm currently operates mortgage divisions in the Virginia cities of Virginia Beach, Roanoke and Richmond. The firm also operates an office in Raleigh and has a small division in central Pennsylvania.

Steve Hall, a broker with Wilmington-based Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Company, is the listing agent for Wells Fargo, which  acquired Wachovia. The building is owned by a group of Charlotte investors who constructed the 90,000-square-foot building in 2005.

Amato is no stranger to the area.

She owns property in the area, and her son, Jeff, is a University of North Carolina Wilmington alumnus who works in the local real estate industry.

Amato said the firm chose to locate its next operation in Wilmington in an effort to continue its growth throughout the Southeast U.S.

“We realized that Wilmington had a good pool of resources in that there were a number of people unemployed that had experience processing mortgages,” Amato said. “You had the employees that I needed.”

The new Wilmington TowneBank Mortgage division will be responsible for processing, handling and underwriting mortgages.

She said officials plan to move into 7,000 square feet of office space on the first floor of the building by May 1. Amato said the firm’s corporate footprint eventually would exceed 15,000 square feet as it hires additional workers.

“I see us growing very quickly,” she said.

TowneBank, which operates more than 20 banking locations throughout Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina, serves a number of clients across the Southeast U.S. through numerous divisions within its banking system, including investments, insurance, mortgages and real estate.

Mayfaire milestone

The addition of TowneBank Mortgage to the abandoned Wachovia building could mark a major turning point in the area’s office market.

After acquiring Wachovia Bank in 2008, Wells Fargo announced in March 2011 the shuttering of its former Southeast U.S. mortgage division headquarters – resulting in nearly 260 employees losing their jobs and adding to an office glut that suppressed office rates and development.

Hall said the building has sat vacant since May 2011 when Wells Fargo officially abandoned the building.

But that has changed as more momentum continues to fuel new office leases and development, especially in Mayfaire.

Hall said with TowneBank Mortgage and another unnamed tenant inking leases at the office facility, the entire first floor of the Wachovia building is now 100 percent occupied – leaving 60,000 square feet of office space remaining in the building.

“We are accepting tenants that are looking for 6,000 square feet of office space to 60,000 square feet,” Hall said.

Overall, more than 70,000 square feet of office space has either been built or is pending construction, in the Mayfaire area.

Wilmington-based developer Steve Anderson is beginning site work on phase three of the Offices at Mayfaire, a 36,500-square-foot building.

Since launching his Mayfaire-area development in 2008, Anderson has constructed 73,000 square feet of office space and is planning to build more than 100,000 square feet of additional office space with phases four through seven in the coming years.
 
And the recent announcement of Wilmington-based Castle Branch – a company that completes background screening for a variety of businesses, notably the health care industry – to add 420 new employees and grow its corporate campus by more than 60,000 square feet also is expected to help to fuel Mayfaire’s office growth.