GREENVILLE, S.C. — PNC Bank plans to open 16 new branches in the Upstate over the next five years, with 12 slated for the Greenville market and four for Spartanburg, the Pittsburgh-based lender announced Nov. 6.
The Upstate locations are part of a 42-branch push into South Carolina by 2031, according to the Upstate Business Journal. Beyond the Upstate, PNC said it will add nine branches in Charleston, nine in Columbia, five in Myrtle Beach and three in Hilton Head. The bank is also adding six branches in Savannah, Ga., and five in Augusta, Ga., bringing the total for the two states to more than 50 and adding eight new markets to its buildout strategy, the company said in a release.
The Carolinas expansion is folded into a larger national program. PNC said it now plans more than 370 new locations by 2031, backed by an investment of about $2.5 billion, and expects to hire 2,400 employees as part of the effort. More than 70 of those branches have already opened since the bank first rolled out its expansion strategy, and PNC said it will build 60 branches a year starting in 2027. The release did not break out how many of the new hires will be based in South Carolina, and neither source identified specific sites or addresses for the Upstate branches.
Bobby Chesney, PNC’s regional president for Western Carolinas, called the Upstate “one of the Southeast’s most dynamic economies” in comments reported by the Upstate Business Journal. In its release, PNC said the South Carolina and Georgia markets join a Southeast footprint that already includes roughly 200 planned locations across Florida and North Carolina, plus targeted buildouts in Atlanta and Nashville.
For commercial real estate professionals, the announcement points to a multiyear pipeline of demand for bank-ready sites in Greenville and Spartanburg counties. Retail bank branches commonly occupy outparcels, freestanding pad sites with drive-through lanes or end-cap space in shopping centers, so landlords and developers holding that kind of product along the region’s busier corridors are the most likely to hear from PNC’s site-selection teams. With 16 locations to place and no sites yet disclosed, much of that leasing and land activity is still ahead.
The plan also adds another national name competing for visible corners and shopping center frontage in the Upstate, space that is also sought by restaurants, medical users and other retail tenants.
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