Canal Insurance makes a move in "the flight for quality".

At a time when many companies are downsizing their brick-and-mortar presence, Canal Insurance, among others, are making the most of a tenant's market.

Canal expects to relocate to new headquarters at 101 N. North Main St. in downtown Greenville's former Bank of America Building in the middle of next year as the company's workforce expands.

More than 85 employees have been hired on over the past three years, while Canal remains on the hunt for people to fill at least 10 positions including accountants, underwriters and claims adjusters, according to the company president and CEO.

"As a family-owned company, we have considered Greenville home for more than 80 years and share a keen appreciation for the advantages of expanding operations and recruiting employees in such a vibrant city and business environment," Paul Brocklebank said in a news release. "We view the new office space and location to be a smart fit with the Canal strategy and focus on collaboration and innovation, as we craft new insurance products and services designed for the next generation of motor carrier customers."

Canal provides an expanding suite of insurance products and services including auto liability, motor truck cargo, physical damage, trucker's general liability coverages and risk management services.

Moving from its Class C brick-and-concrete hub on 400 East Stone Ave., Canal will occupy 65,000 square feet, or one-third, of the soaring One Square skyscraper which soon will bear the company's name. The building's former anchor company, Bank of America, moved into 32,000 square feet of office space in the 423 S. Main St. at Camperdown in early 2020.

Brantley Anderson, vice president of the Colliers International office that brokered the Canal deal, said the move is indicative of a larger trend in the Greenville-Spartanburg market: brick-and-mortar companies are flocking to higher quality properties with amenities and the draw of an attractive location, as former tenants downsize, upgrade or go remote.

"We call it the flight to quality," she said. "We see that right now, and I think that COVID certainly acted a catalyst for that. I don't want to blame everything on the pandemic, but when companies see that their employees have an option to work at home or come into the office, they want to have that nice, clean, fresh modern feeling hub to try to get their employees to want to come back to the office."

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