Top Three Floors Leased at Imperial Tower

December 31st, 2025

Three floor, almost 90,000 SF headquarters lease is one of the largest deals this year in the Research Triangle
Imperial Tower

In a sign that office leasing activity is on an upswing in the Research Triangle office market, Drawbridge Realty announced a long-term lease agreement for 89,770 square feet with Aspida Financial Services and its affiliates (“Aspida”) at Imperial Tower.

“We’re delighted to share our forward vision for Imperial Tower with such a highly respected local company as Aspida, and we look forward to welcoming them to their new headquarters in 2026, said Charlie McEachron, CEO, Drawbridge Realty.

“Aspida’s expansion in our home city of Durham reinforces our commitment to the local community, and to our continued growth in North Carolina,” said Lou Hensley, CEO and President of Aspida. “This new property allows for our quickly growing organization to thrive and keeps us in Durham, where we made our start. We are excited about this next chapter and to continue to support the community in which we work and live.”

Imperial Tower is an 11-story office building at 4820 Emperor Boulevard in Durham. Aspida, a fast-growing financial services company with more than $27 billion in assets as of September 30, 2025, intends to occupy the top three full floors of the 264,598 SF building.

Drawbridge has announced a major repositioning and upgrade plan for the building, which will see the addition of numerous tenant amenities, including a wellness room, a tenant lounge and game room, a waterside patio, a café/bakery/coffee shop, a golf simulator, a fitness center with locker room and shower facilities, athletic fields, and pickleball and sport courts. The $10M improvement program also includes a complete lobby and conferencing center renovation.

Greg Sanchez, Ryan Gaylord, and Robin Roseberry Anders of NAI Tri Properties represented Drawbridge in lease negotiations and Matthew Cooke and Gardner Gibson of Davis Moore represented Aspida.

Drawbridge Realty acquired the LEED Silver certified building in December 2020. At the time, the 11-year-old building was fully leased through May 2026, but the existing tenant decided to vacate the building after initiating a remote work policy during COVID. The building occupies a ‘Main and Main’ Triangle location on I-40 and is just two exits from Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).

This is the third major long-term lease completed by Drawbridge in the last 90 days. Last month, Drawbridge completed a 99,589 SF. expansion with the County of Orange (Calif.) at 1700 E. St. Andrew Place, a three-story office building in Orange County’s Airport submarket. Drawbridge also recently acquired The HIVE, a three-building campus in Cost Mesa, simultaneously securing a 190,000 SF lease for the entire property with Anduril Industries.