Downtown office buildings have been far quieter than normal over the last 18 months. But since November, the SunTrust Center has remained abuzz with worker bees of a different sort.

Raleigh-based Bee Downtown, which installs and maintains beehives on corporate campuses, expanded into Richmond from North Carolina with its first hives in Virginia atop the 26-story building at 919 E. Main St.

Bee Downtown CEO Leigh-Kathryn Bonner said the result is two hives containing about 30,000 bees each, aimed in part at helping Mother Nature and in part at corporate teambuilding.

“While we are putting the hives on the campuses — and it is very much a sustainability initiative — what we do throughout the year is we have employees going through interactive experiences,” said Bonner.