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NBT Bank has leased a floor of the prominent 677 Broadway office building in downtown Albany to accommodate its growing non-retail workforce.

The Norwich-based bank expects to move more than 40 employees, including commercial banking and wealth management teams, into the 15,000-square-foot space by the end of the year, regional president Ruth Mahoney and commercial banking executive Alfred Testa told the Business Review.

“We keep growing at a rate and a pace where we know we’re going to need more space for people,” Testa said. 

Mahoney said her Capital Region team has added 25 employees since January, bringing its complement of non-retail staff in the area to 125. (The bank has another 75 to 90 branch employees in the market.) 

Many of the employees moving to the Broadway location will come from the bank’s office on Wolf Road in Colonie, though NBT plans to maintain that space as well. 

Elsewhere in the region, the bank has office space in Schenectady, Saratoga Springs and Glens Falls. It also has dozens of retail branches across the greater Capital Region, including one on State Street in downtown Albany. 

NBT considered about 15 to 20 different spaces — including suburban sites — before deciding on the Broadway office location, Testa said. 

“We thought it was the right time, the right building to bring 40-plus people to downtown Albany and help support all the good things going on down here,” he said. 

“We feel like it’s really important to do our part to support the city,” Mahoney added. 

Brokers Dan Davitt and Eric Simonds of CBRE Upstate NY represented NBT.

BBL Construction is serving as general contractor for the fit-up.

Nearby, under-construction projects financed by NBT include Jankow Cos.’ office-to-residential conversion on North Pearl Street and BBL’s $27 million transformation of an old textile mill across the river in Rensselaer. 

NBT was one of only a few lenders in the Capital Region to report a year-over-year increase in commercial mortgage volume for 2023, according to The List. The bank disclosed $161 million in new deals, the fourth-highest tally and a 6.6% improvement on its 2022 total. 

Incidentally, about two decades ago, NBT financed the construction of 677 Broadway, which was built by BBL. 

Today the property is owned by SteepRock Capital LLC, a real estate investment firm with offices in Rochester and Greenwich, Connecticut. Other tenants include law firm Harris Beach PLLC, brokerage giant Charles Schwab Corp. and upscale steakhouse 677 Prime.

NBT has more than 150 banking offices across seven states, including New York.  

Its holding company, NBT Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: NBTB), reported having $13.5 billion in assets through June of this year.