Raleigh moves toward naming downtown convention center Atlantic Union Bank venue

Raleigh is moving toward putting a bank’s name on one of downtown’s most visible public assets, and the price is clear: $525,000 in the first year, rising 2% annually under a 15-year naming-rights deal.

The City Council is set to hold a public hearing June 16 at 1 p.m. on a proposal to rename the Raleigh Convention Center at 500 South Salisbury Street the Atlantic Union Bank Convention Center. The agreement would give Atlantic Union Bank two optional five-year extensions after the initial term, extending the brand tie to a place that has helped anchor downtown Raleigh’s event economy since the building opened in September 2008.

For Raleigh, the question is not just whether the city should take the money. It is also how much naming control it is willing to surrender over a landmark that still functions as a civic symbol. The convention center includes a 32,000-square-foot ballroom and a 150,000-square-foot exhibit hall, and the city’s convention authority oversees its maintenance, operation and financing. A corporate name would make that public identity even more visible at the center of downtown.

The financial logic is straightforward. Naming rights can create a steady non-tax revenue stream for a city that is trying to keep major facilities funded while new downtown investments pile up. Raleigh is already pushing a large convention center expansion that would add about 500,000 square feet, roughly 30 breakout rooms and 50,000 square feet of flex halls, while doubling capacity to about 20,000 people. The city is also advancing a 600-room Omni Raleigh Hotel and related downtown redevelopment around the convention district.

Atlantic Union Bank brings a local-market angle to the proposal. The Richmond-based bank has 11 branches in North Carolina, including one in Raleigh, and plans to keep expanding in the Research Triangle. That makes the naming deal more than a distant corporate sponsorship: it would attach a growing regional banking brand to one of Raleigh’s most important public venues.

The hearing also lands in a city already accustomed to branded venues. Raleigh owns and manages a lineup that includes Red Hat Amphitheater and Coastal Credit Union Music Park, showing how corporate names have become part of the local entertainment landscape. What remains unsettled is whether residents will accept that same treatment for the convention center, a building tied to downtown commerce, city identity and the visitor economy.

Visit Raleigh says Wake County visitors spent $3.2 billion in 2023 and generated $157 million in local tax revenue, underscoring why city leaders may see a naming-rights fee as worthwhile. The June 16 hearing will be the public’s main chance to test whether the revenue is enough to justify putting Atlantic Union Bank on the front of a downtown landmark.