Red Hat Tower (formerly Two Progress Tower) is the

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

of the company

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...

, a subsidiary of

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

. It is located in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

, in the United States. It was completed in 2004 at a cost of $100 million as a headquarters for Progress Energy Inc, a conglomerate of

Duke Energy Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company ranked as the 141st largest company in the United States in 2024 – its highest-ever placement on the ...

. It has 19 floors and of space. It is owned by J.P. Morgan Trust Co.

History

In 1999, Carolina Power & Light announced plans for a new headquarters tower. The 2000 merger with Florida Progress Corporation which created Progress Energy increased the need for the new building, which at the time had an estimated cost of $60 million. On February 14, 2002, Progress announced that the new project, costing $80 million, would include retail and residential space as well as offices, with a completion date of 2004. The company bought the two-acre site east of the existing headquarters in 2000. In April 2002, Progress selected Carter & Associates of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

to develop the project. The first phase would be complete in 2004, with the second phase to follow in 2006. Late in 2002, Progress Energy announced its two new office buildings would be built at the same time. Instead, with commercial construction in a slump, Progress planned to speed up the larger project, which would bring together employees from a number of locations, including One Hannover Square, 333 Corporate Plaza and One Exchange Plaza in downtown Raleigh. On September 2, 2004, the building officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.Dudley Price, "Downtown Raleigh gets boost", ''News & Observer'', September 3, 2004. The January 2011 announcement that Progress will merge with

left the status of Two Progress Plaza in question, since completion of the merger could have indicated that the company needed less space. However, on August 25, 2011,

announced plans to move 600 employees from its offices on the N.C. State Centennial Campus. Th 19-story tower was vacated by Progress Energy in 2012. Red Hat's lease began on January 1, 2013, ending August 23, 2035. In 2012, Red Hat estimated it would invest around $30 million in renovating and equipping the building.https://www.wral.com/story/10697044/ A ribbon cutting ceremony was held June 24, 2013 in the re-branded Red Hat Headquarters. The logo at the top of the tower was changed in 2019, coinciding with a rebrand at Red Hat.

Gallery

File:Red Hat headquarters at Raleigh, North Carolina, US -- 9 November 2013 (cropped).jpg , November 9, 2013 File:Red Hat Tower.JPG , March 2, 2014 File:Red Hat Tower-2013-10-29.jpeg , October 29, 2013 File:Red Hat Tower -- 15 February 2017 (cropped).jpeg , February 15, 2017

References

External links

* {{coord, 35.7749, -78.6390, region:US-NC_type:landmark, display=title 2004 establishments in North Carolina Buildings and structures completed in 2004 Information technology company headquarters in the United States Red Hat Skyscraper office buildings in Raleigh, North Carolina