The identity of the mystery buyer of downtown’s Branch Building has been revealed. Local entrepreneur Ashley Williams confirmed this week she was the winning bidder at the recent auction for the six-story, 158-year-old office building at 1015 E. Main St. Williams, who owns yoga and health company BareSOUL Wellness, bid $1.35 million in the February auction and finalized the purchase in late March. Throughout the auction and closing process, it wasn’t clear who was behind the LLC that made the purchase. Williams founded BareSOUL in 2015 as a pop-up before securing a space for the business at 13 S. 13th St. in 2020, a space Williams has used primarily as a yoga studio. She later added a division of BareSOUL called The Well Collective that offers classes in everything from poetry to knitting to meditation, along with events like book signings and health-related services like acupuncture. Williams said the Branch Building will serve as the headquarters for The Well Collective, which she’s hoping to expand by adding new offerings. “We weren’t actively searching for a building, but I knew that (need) would come at some point in time,” she said. “I knew that we would need a larger space to hold expanded programming and our administrative team.” Williams bought the Branch Building from North Carolina-based real estate firm Hem + Spire, which bought it in 2020 for $1.47 million. Hem + Spire had planned to modernize the 12,000-square-foot building’s office spaces but after the pandemic impacted the local office market, it opted to punt on the project and put the building up for auction. The Branch Building is currently about 33 percent leased and Williams said her vision is to have The Well Collective occupy it in its entirety. Williams said she’s early in the renovation planning process and that she doesn’t yet know how the building will be laid out inside. The auction in February was conducted online through CoStar Group’s Ten-X auction site.
This content was originally published here.
