Construction is expected to start soon on an office building that will house BB&T’s new  downtown Wilmington location.

The North Carolina-based bank will be the anchor tenant at the latest Cape Fear Commercial development, set to begin construction July 1.

“This is a very exciting time for us at BB&T,” Phil Marion, BB&T Southeastern regional president, said in a statement Friday. “We are committed to Wilmington and the downtown area specifically.”

An existing building at the site, 101 N. Third St., that now houses the downtown offices of PNC Bank, will be demolished and replaced by a five-story office complex that will be about 70,000 square feet.

BB&T signed a long-term lease with Cape Fear Commercial to occupy about 34,000 square feet in the building, according to the real estate firm.

BB&T officials said all 76 of the current associates who work in the bank’s current building at 115 N. Third St. will move to the new location where the bank will occupy spaces throughout the first three floors of the building.

BB&T’s financial center will not be the only business housed on the first floor, as Cape Fear Commercial announced the bank will share the space with Dunkin’ Donuts.

“We are very excited about securing Dunkin on the first floor. We think it will be a nice compliment to the building and a great amenity for all of downtown” Brian Eckel, partner and principal broker at Cape Fear Commercial, said in a statement.

Eckel and Will Purvis, a development partner at Cape Fear Commercial, are overseeing the project, which received approval from the city’s Technical Review Committee on May 13.

“We have been working on this project for a couple of years,” Purvis said in a statement. “It is exciting to see it finally materialize and we are looking forward to breaking ground at the end of [June].”

LS3P Associates LTD designed the building, which will be built by Barnhill Contracting Company.

The building will include three bank drive-thru lanes and 14 on-site parking spots. Eckel said the firm is working with city officials to try and gain access to the adjacent city-owned parking deck for building tenants.

The new building is classified as a class-A office space. It will be the first significant class-A space built in the central business district since the Bank of America building in 2009, and it is expected to be complete by June 2015.