TSYS

TSYS. . , TSYS , As textile production dwindled at Muscogee Manufacturing, the closing of the century brought a new vibrant home-grown business to occupy its space. Total System Services (TSYS) traces its beginnings back to the data processing department of Columbus Bank and Trust Company (CB&T) which was the second bank in Georgia to issue its own credit card in 1959. What began as an effort to digitize checking accounts and other bank operations quickly evolved into the creation of a credit card processing program so effective that other banks began paying a licensing fee to use it. By the 1970s, the CB&T Bankcard team was processing credit card payments for its bank clients, and by 1983 when TSYS became a separate publicly traded company, it was processing more than 2 million accounts., A decade later, TSYS’ TS2 processing system was quickly dominating the national market, and TSYS was taking its business global. While TSYS was becoming a leader in the worldwide payments industry, team members were scattered throughout a number of downtown buildings, and creating a headquarters facility with space to grow was the next step. Local civic leaders assembled a 35 acre tract of land and downtown properties for this purpose, including the former Muscogee Manufacturing building and the historic Calhoun-Griffin-Mott House. TSYS purchased the property as the location for its headquarters, known as the TSYS Riverfront Campus., Architect Kevin Roche was selected to design the TSYS headquarters because of his portfolio of award-winning structures that married historic and modern features. The Riverfront Campus opened in 1999 with a design that incorporated a series of interconnected avant-garde four-story buildings with horizontal bands of black and silver glass punctuated with short façades of brick as a nod to the city's historic architecture. Circular silver towers reflected the old mills' stair towers, but with a modern flair. A large, dancing fountain welcoming visitors at the front entrance served as a reference to Columbus as the "Fountain City”., Along 14th Street, a brick parking garage with arched windows and decorative elements recalling the Muscogee Manufacturing façade provide a transition between the old city and this new center of information commerce. The exterior of the historic Calhoun-Griffin-Mott House had been restoredduring the construction of the Riverfront Campus. , In 2013, TSYS began the process of refurbishing the interior of the house to create a first-class client conference center and meeting facility. In September of 2014, the Calhoun-Griffin-Mott House was destroyed by fire. The site today stands as a memorial to the home, those who built it and lived there, and in honor of the men and women who have worked on this site through the centuries., Photograph courtesy of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.