"I've always been concerned about some of the banks moving out of Downtown," Bill Law, chairman of locally based Colliers Cauble & Co., tells GlobeSt.com. "It's hurt the Downtown real estate market."

If SunTrust succeeds in its bid, it's not known what it will do about office space, but Law thinks with SunTrust's past leasing record, it should be inclined to lease Downtown.

Law, who is familiar with both banks, tells Globest.com that each of them has been "pretty friendly to the real estate market in the past, though SunTrust has had a longer presence."

Wachovia's largest office in Atlanta is at 191 Peachtree St. in Downtown, where the company has more than 382,000 sf. Wachovia's next largest concentration involves 188,000 sf at Piedmont Center in Buckhead, an affluent commercial and residential district eight miles from Downtown.

In its offer, SunTrust says the combined company would be based in Atlanta. A SunTrust-Wachovia merger has long been rumored and the new offer brought out details of a prior agreement that was abandoned when Wachovia officials apparently changed their minds.

On May 14, SunTrust delivered a letter to the board of directors of Wachovia Corp. proposing to acquire the company in a stock transaction valued at $70.06 per Wachovia share.

The combination of SunTrust and the Winston-Salem-based Wachovia would create the largest financial services company in the Southeast with $180 billion in combined assets. The company would have over 7.5 million retail customers and the No. 1 market positions in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.

SunTrust's offer easily surpassed that of First Union, according to SunTrust officials. Wachovia agreed almost a month ago to be purchased by the Charlotte, NC-based First Union for $13.4 billion. Analysts looking at the relatively small 6% premium being offered to Wachovia shareholders were expecting another bid.

SunTrust has long been rumored as a merger candidate and L. Philip Humann, SunTrust's chairman, president and CEO, made the point during an Internet conference call yesterday (May 14) that terms had been reached and a joint announcement was to have been made of the merger last December.

Humann says Wachovia cited no reason for backing out of the deal. "But then, as you can imagine, on April 16, we were perplexed and honestly disturbed to hear of the First Union offer which was inferior to our December transaction in virtually very respect," he said during the call.

Throughout yesterday's call, Humann stressed that SunTrust's offer was better than First Union's. He says the SunTrust deal is 17% better in regards to price SunTrust's $70.06 compared to First Union's $60.14 and 25% superior in terms of dividends.

The offer is better for shareholders of both companies, according to Humann. The deal is also expected to add to SunTrust's earnings per share after merger-related charges.

Service of the combined institutions could also be improved. First Union planned to reduce personnel by 7,000, while SunTrust is looking at personnel reductions of 4,000. Also, SunTrust has proposed cutting back about half of the 300 branches First Union planned to close.

Humann says SunTrust's fit with Wachovia in terms of corporate culture and personnel involves a good match. Both institutions also share the same philosophy of being human relations-oriented more than transaction-minded, according to Humann.