First Citizens Bank Finalizes Purchase of BTI Corporate Center in Raleigh's North Hills

April 1, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. - First Citizens Bank today announced that it has finalized the purchase of the BTI Corporate Center from Highwoods Properties.

The property is located at 4300 Six Forks Road. Financial terms of the sale will not be disclosed.

Lewis R. Holding, Chairman of First Citizens Bank, said the building is an important addition to the bank’s plans for a major corporate office campus in the company’s headquarters market. “This office complex will help First Citizens efficiently consolidate its corporate staff in one of the premier business locations in Raleigh,” he said.

The bank will begin renovation work on the building in May, including changing the name of the building to First Citizens. Various bank departments will begin moving into the building in the third quarter of 2005. First Citizens will continue to lease space to tenants already in the BTI complex. Highwoods Properties will manage the property.

Ed Fritsch, Chief Executive Officer and President of Highwoods Properties, stated, “We are pleased to complete the sale of this property to First Citizens Bank. They are a long-time customer of Highwoods and clearly the BTI Corporate Center fits well with their plans for their headquarters market.”

The complex occupies 4.9 acres in Raleigh’s North Hills area. It includes a nine-story, 163,000-square-foot building and a multi-level parking deck. The building is adjacent to more than eight acres First Citizens already owns in the block bounded by Six Forks and Lassiter Mill roads, Rowan Street and Camelot Drive. In 2000, the bank announced plans for a corporate office complex in the block. The first phase of the complex was completed in 2001 with the construction of a 24,000 square-foot branch and Wake area offices. An 87,000-square-foot, crescent-shaped building is also planned for the site, but there is no construction timetable to announce for that project.

In 2001, the bank purchased a 50,000-square-foot building in the block at 16 E. Rowan St., where about 100 First Citizens associates work.

More than 1,600 of First Citizens Bank’s 5,000 associates work in Wake County. Approximately 1,000 of them are based at the bank’s Data Center on Hammond Road south of downtown Raleigh.

Founded in 1898, First Citizens Bank operates 336 branches in more than 200 cities and towns in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Headquartered in Raleigh, the bank has $13.3 billion in assets. First Citizens is committed to providing superior financial services to individual customers and small to mid-sized businesses. For more information about First Citizens Bank and its services, visit firstcitizens.com or call toll-free 1-888-FC DIRECT (1-888-323-4732).

Barbara Thompson
(919) 716-2716
First Citizens Bank