WalMart / NetBank, 9710 Two Notch Road: 27 September 2007 5 comments
I have done a couple of other posts on this mostly dead strip mall on Two Notch at Polo called Park Centre. In particular, here is Piggly Wiggly / Harris Teeter (and Bruno's), and here is Pic 'N Pay.
Neither of those was the strip's main tenant however. That was initially Walmart and then after that, NetBank.
Of course everyone is familiar with Walmart and their gradual move to bigger "Supercenter" locations. That, I believe is what happened to this location: It was replaced by the Supercenter at 10060 Two Notch Road.
I was not as familiar with NetBank which moved in after Walmart moved, probably in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
To summarize the NetBank Wikipedia page, NetBank was an Atlanta/Alpharetta based operation which started as Atlanta Internet Bank and Net.B@nk before settling on the NetBank name. It was a very early venture into Internet banking and mainly made its money from mortgages.
It did quite well for a while, but eventually overextended itself and got into trouble as its core mortgage business started to fail (though this was a little before the main 2008 mortgage crisis). After flailing for a while, it decided to sell itself off to another bank, but found it didn't even have enough to bring to the table to pull that off and ended up being taken over by the Office of Thrift Supervision on 27 September 2007, becoming the biggest thrift failure since the S&L crisis of the 80s.
This site was a big enough part of its assets that it was mentioned in the Bloomberg article on its failure as part of the asset base to be sold off. After the takeover, the FDIC insured accounts were acquired by ING Direct.
According to commenter Soxinsc, Blue Cross/Blue Shield leased the NetBank space for a while, and there does still seem to be some sort of front desk with signs of use in there though I find it odd that the NetBank logo was never taken down if someone else did have the building..
5 Responses to 'WalMart / NetBank, 9710 Two Notch Road: 27 September 2007'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'WalMart / NetBank, 9710 Two Notch Road: 27 September 2007'.
-
Andrew
19 Nov 11 at 1:50 am
-
Yes, BlueCross took over the space, but never changed the signage; I could not begin to tell you why not. I worked at Blue off Alpine Rd. for three years, until leaving this May, and for that entire time, this was one of their satellite offices. That rainbow of stickers on the doors in the fourth & fifth pics is a dead giveaway that this is a BlueCross office, as is the phone number on the handwritten sign.
In fact, I'm really surprised if it still isn't BlueCross, as I don't recall any conversation about closing that office, and I've only been gone six months. Though the parking lot being *completely* empty does seem to support that, no matter when you took these pictures; Blue always seems to have smene working late or on weekends.
Weston
19 Nov 11 at 6:26 am
-
Weston, I think you are partially correct. There may be some people still working there but for the most part they are being relocated back to the Alpine complex. Whether or not BCBSSC continues to lease that space I have no idea, but it wouldn't surprise me. People I know who worked there appreciated being "out of sight, out of mind" for a while.
-
the NetBank signage has been removed from this building finally
Andrew
18 Dec 11 at 12:38 am
-
This NetBank Office was originally a office for customer files, but eventually became sort of a processing center for the companies Home Loans & Auto Loans.
The crap that was coming in was absolutely horrifying. There were 80/20 (meaning two loans, that equaled 100% of the homes value) loans coming in, with occupations like Waiter or Housekeeper with incomes stated at $95,000, or $106,000 - for $400k - $500k homes.
Than - to make things far worse, NetBank heavily promoted Home Equity Lines & 2nd Mortgages with NIV (No Income Verification, or No Employment Information Required) with Credit Scores down to 550.
Back than, I remember being shocked at the crap that was being approved and the willful disregard by the underwriters. I only later realized, how it started from the top - all the way down.
The reason they failed in 2007, is many of the loans that were being processed and funded - failed VERY early on after closing. Sometimes the "homeowners" wouldn't even make their first payment on the house, or would fall behind in the first six months - and go into foreclosure. Wall Street Banks begin to say - Yeah, You need to buy back this loan, because it failed. Eventually - the buyback demands, became too much, and that triggered a liquidity crisis for the bank.
Honestly, I'm so glad to have moved on from that point of my life. I came across this earlier tonight, and wanted to post. I think this office space has been empty since Jan 2008. Most of the processors and staff were let go in May - June of 2007 though.
Johnathan
11 Feb 20 at 1:55 am
Park Centre is owned by a company called BrixMor (formally Centro Properties) which shows on the site map that Blue Cross/Blue Shield has some sort of offices in thiat area but I am not sure what the details are. I am not sure why the NetBank signage is still up. The former Rugged Wearhouse at Harbison Court sitll has their signage up and the former Tweeter at Columbiana Centre had it up long after it closed until Jared, The Galleria of Jewlery decided to take it over so it's not the only case but it's a rarity.
They Also Own Lexington Town Square (which is Food Lion-ancored (next to Kmart #7616)) and behind the Lexington Downtown Station PO