GREENVILLE, S.C. — TD Bank announced plans Wednesday to put a regional hub in Greenville and create 1,600 new jobs in South Carolina over the next five years in one of the largest job announcements in the state in recent years.

Company officials said the bank is expanding its corporate offices off Interstate 85, adding 1,400 jobs there and 200 jobs in Lexington. Currently, 160 people work at the Greenville campus. The bank acquired Greenville-based South Financial Group last year.

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John Patriquin/Staff Photographer: Customer service representative DJ Peterson helps new customer Matthew Hodgins in 2010 open a new account at TD Bank. TD Bank, which is headquartered in Maine, announced on Wednesday, Nov. 16, that it's creating 1,600 jobs in South Carolina. John Patriquin

A $17.1 million renovation of three buildings in Greenville, totaling 300,000 square feet of corporate space, will start early next year. Officials say that also will create construction jobs. The campus was formerly South Financial’s but was never completed, officials said.

“This is a major investment in the future of TD Bank,” said president and CEO Bharat Masrani. “Our Greenville regional hub will provide TD Bank with a strong foundation and capacity to accommodate the expansion of ‘America’s Most Convenient Bank’ from Maine to Florida,” he added, citing TD’s slogan.

Its parent company, Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank, acquired South Financial Group last year, adding 176 locations in the southeastern United States. TD did not have a U.S. presence six years ago, but now has 1,300 branches from Maine to Florida, compared with 1,100 in Canada. The larger company is North America’s sixth largest bank by branches.

TD Bank boasts of being among the 10 largest banks in the U.S., with more than 7.4 million customers, $200 billion in assets and $75 billion in loans. The company’s dual U.S. headquarters will remain in New Jersey and Maine.

But the Greenville campus will also serve the company’s entire U.S. operations, particularly if an ice storm or snow storm knocks out power or otherwise hinders operations in the Northeast, said Robert Hoak, TD’s regional president.

“This center can still take care of customers,” said Hoak, a Citadel graduate who joined TD Bank and returned to South Carolina last year. He said the announcement further shows TD’s commitment to the state, noting last year’s acquisition alone saved jobs and branches of troubled South Financial, and it made sense to use the already-existing campus.

TD has about 1,300 employees and 81 branches in South Carolina.

The new corporate jobs include work in operations, technology, marketing, and compliance, Masrani said.

Gov. Nikki Haley praised TD bank as being a top lender to South Carolina’s small businesses. TD Bank’s decision to put a regional hub in South Carolina will help the state recruit more companies, she said.

“I am smiling big today,” she said. “These are 1,600 white collar jobs that are great jobs for the people of our state. This is a service they’re giving for our small businesses and individuals. We want these businesses as much as we want manufacturing businesses.”

In a time when anti-banking sentiment is running high around the country, Masrani noted TD Bank has retained its AAA credit rating and weathered the financial crisis well. A key reason for that, he said, was because TD Bank was not in the subprime loan or derivative business that led to the financial crisis. Hoak pointed out TD also never considered a fee for debit card transactions.

“TD has positioned itself financially in such a way we can take care of our customers in the down times and up times,” Hoak said. “In 2008, when the financial industry was melting and banks were pulling back, TD still grew its loans 12 percent.”

South Financial operated under the Carolina First and Mercantile Bank brands in the Carolinas and Florida. The signs were changed to TD Bank in June.

South Financial was the subject of Federal Reserve enforcement action in May 2010, after the bank had suffered more than $1.3 billion in losses since 1998 because of loan charges related to real estate. Later that month, TD Bank Financial Group Inc. announced it was buying the company for $192 million.

TD officials say the Greenville campus will be renovated with the environment in mind. The buildings are designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Design, or LEED, gold certification. Plans include offering employees bicycle storage and preferred parking for low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles.

Employees will move into different parts of the campus as they’re completed, with the entire project slated to be finished in 2017.

The state approved job-development tax credits for the company, which it can obtain once hiring targets are met.

TD is the third company this year announcing the creation of more than 1,000 jobs in South Carolina.

Last month, Continental Tire AG said it would put $500 million into a Sumter tire plant that will employ 1,600 when its two-phase project is completed in 10 years. Amazon plans to hire 2,000 full-time employees by the end of 2013 at its new distribution center near Cayce under a deal approved by legislators.

TD is the second bank this year announcing the creation of corporate jobs in Greenville.

In May, CertusBank announced plans to open a headquarters in Greenville and create 350 jobs. That bank, a subsidiary of Blue Ridge Holdings Inc., will be one of three major tenants in a new office complex called One Greenville. Construction on that project is slated to be complete by the end of 2012.

The state’s largest jobs announcement came in 2009, with Boeing building a new $750 million assembly plant for its 787 jets in North Charleston, bringing 3,800 jobs.

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