The Good News Report

[Urbanity]

Lime Energy is relocating their HQ from Charlotte to Huntersville where it already employs about 15 people. The move will bring an additional 35-50 jobs.

Though it is a smaller company, I'm again impressed by the aggregation of energy companies in the Charlotte area.

Edited August 22, 2011 by Urbanity

[kermit]

While the number of jobs is kinda shrug inducing the Chamber announced today that Andritz Hydro will add about 20 to its US HQ here in town.

The Chamber Press Release is here: http://ht.ly/1eBDqd

Any HQ activity is probably worth noting here and the local energy sector continues to surprise me -- I may yet become a believer in the cluster.

[kermit]

Color me skeptical but the Business Journal is reporting that Chiquita is looking at Charlotte for HQ relocation.

The company is seeking approximately 150,000 square feet of office space and has toured properties in uptown and Ballantyne. Chiquita has approximately 330 employees in Cincinnati.

Chiquita is considering creating 416 positions in Charlotte, which includes 90 existing employees moved from Cincinnati. The average salary is estimated at $106,000.

http://www.bizjourna...du&ana=e_du_pub

While Chiquita likes direct air connections to Europe and South America (and is concerned about flight availability in Cinci) it still smells a lot like incentives shopping to me.... (they are reportedly also looking at Atlanta, Boca Raton and the possibility of staying put)

EDIT: double finger cross for uptown....

Edited September 13, 2011 by kermit

[Guest]

Color me skeptical but the Business Journal is reporting that Chiquita is looking at Charlotte for HQ relocation.

http://www.bizjourna...du&ana=e_du_pub

While Chiquita likes direct air connections to Europe and South America (and is concerned about flight availability in Cinci) it still smells a lot like incentives shopping to me.... (they are reportedly also looking at Atlanta, Boca Raton and the possibility of staying put)

EDIT: double finger cross for uptown....

Am I the only one foreseeing a banana skyscraper In Our future?

[ah59396]

We may not have the hottest unemployment rate right now, but darn it if our workers aren't happy!

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/the-happiest-cities-for-young-professionals.html

[southslider]

Am I the only one foreseeing a banana skyscraper In Our future?

Not sure 400 workers warrant a brand new building in Uptown. Maybe they could just put their name on an existing building. Question is then, which building most looks like a banana? Personally, I'd pick the white tower with bronze windows. BofA seems to need less space, and the white lights that shine on this building at night could always be swapped for yellow.

[Guest]

sorry Southslider, only a banana tower will suffice, even if its only 20 floors of 10k sq. feet floorplates, lol

[southslider]

^If the tower were ultra-modern, like London's "egg," I wouldn't mind a "banana." But realistically, I'll be happy with just another HQ Uptown, instead of Ballantyne.

[Guest]

^If the tower were ultra-modern, like London's "egg," I wouldn't mind a "banana." But realistically, I'll be happy with just another HQ Uptown, instead of Ballantyne.

Lol, I'm just jokin but yes a uptown hq would be great, although I'm all HQs In both places, would love for a light rail extension to ballyworld, would be a great idea

Edited September 15, 2011 by Guest

[Urbanity]

sorry Southslider, only a banana tower will suffice, even if its only 20 floors of 10k sq. feet floorplates, lol

I'm with nibletodell.

[kermit]

a banana tower would be the coolest thing ever!

Fruitnet.com !????! Says that Florida is out of the running since they balked at the dollars requested.

http://www.fruitnet.com/content.aspx?cid=11982

[kermit]

<p>Possible &quot;not so bad&quot; news:</p>

<p> </p>

<p>United Technologies has reached an agreement to purchase Charlotte based Goodrich. While some HQ activities will certainly disappear from Charlotte:</p>

<p> </p>

<div>

Goodrich will be combined with Hamilton Sundstrand in a new unit that will be based in Goodrich's hometown of Charlotte, N.C., and run by Goodrich CEO Marshall Larsen. After the deal, nearly half of United Technologies' revenue will come from aerospace.

</div>

<div> </div>

<div>So we may be looking at some growth in our not too shabby aerospace cluster.</div>

<div> </div>

<div>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903703604576585430979081662.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories</div>

<div> </div>

[atlrvr]

Probably won't be too much job losses, and probably some marginal gains. The biggest sting is losing a Fortun 500 HQ.

From a revenue perspective, the Goodrich as a stand-alone company would move from 337 on the Fortune 500 list to 194 once combined with Hamilton-Sunstrand.

UTX serves as more of a parent organization of lots of different companies, not too unsimilar to Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, so I suspect Goodrich will maintain it's own HR, accounting, finance, legal, etc, etc jobs, and probably grow somewhat since the company is now almost double in size.

One could hope the whole UTX might move here at some point, but it probably doesn't make a lot of sense, unless greater airport connectivity is important. The division HQ's of UTX's other brands are for the most part all located within 30 mins of Hartford. The parent company only employs about 300-400 corporate jobs in Hartford.

[HopHead]

As some of you may know, Cincinnati, OH upped its the ante on incentives to try and keep the Chiquita HQ from moving. However, as recent as this week, Chiquita officials said they were still talking to Charlotte: http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-news/Chiquita-considers-leaving-Cincinnati-130149578.html. No word on a timetable for a decision, but it's obvious that the decreasing number of destinations out of the Cincy airport as a result of Delta winding down the hub operations there is a concern. The continued growth of the CLT airport is a definite asset for us. It would be nice to see this HQ land here with the high paying jobs, but at the same time I don't think it's in our best interest to give away the farm to lure these guys either. After all, this is primarily a money grab for Chiquita.

[cltbwimob]

Probably won't be too much job losses, and probably some marginal gains. The biggest sting is losing a Fortun 500 HQ. From a revenue perspective, the Goodrich as a stand-alone company would move from 337 on the Fortune 500 list to 194 once combined with Hamilton-Sunstrand. UTX serves as more of a parent organization of lots of different companies, not too unsimilar to Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, so I suspect Goodrich will maintain it's own HR, accounting, finance, legal, etc, etc jobs, and probably grow somewhat since the company is now almost double in size. One could hope the whole UTX might move here at some point, but it probably doesn't make a lot of sense, unless greater airport connectivity is important. The division HQ's of UTX's other brands are for the most part all located within 30 mins of Hartford. The parent company only employs about 300-400 corporate jobs in Hartford.

This could actually be a huge coup for Charlotte if the city's leaders and economic development professionals try to use this to their advantage. Now since UTC owns Goodrich, Charlotte might have a leg up if other business units of UTC such as Sikorsky or Pratt and Whitney decide to open up new facilities. Who knows...maybe one day we can have a helicopter final assembly plant and a jet engine manufacturing plant in the Charlotte area.

Edited September 22, 2011 by cltbwimob

[HopHead]

In a somewhat minor blip on the radar, Time Warner Cable will be adding an additional 85 jobs to Charlotte on top of the 225 they had announced a short time ago. It will be part of a consolidation of accounting positions from LA, NY and a few other places I believe. No word on how many of those jobs will be new ones for Charlotte area residents as a number of them will be transfers. Of course as we all know, not every takes a relo package.

[HopHead]

Thought this was interesting. While the unemployment rate in Charlotte hasn't exactly nosedived, it looks like we weren't bleeding jobs in the last year (Aug 2010 - Aug 2011). A modest 4,100 non-farm jobs were added: http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2011/09/77-major-markets-post-job-increases.html Houston and Dallas seem to continue their upward trend. However, Atlanta seemed to get crushed as the area lost over 30,000 jobs.

[atlrvr]

It was pretty big news a couple of weeks ago when EPRI bought part of the old Verbatim complex at University Research Park. They are coming close to doubling their amount of square footage, and while they didn't specify number of specific jobs, claims they would continue to add jobs in Charlotte.

EPRI is a reserach institute that focuses on improving efficiency within the utility industry. They cover nuclear, fossil fuels, and renewable energies. They already employ over 200 people here.

_________________

Also, Atlanta Business Journal says that Atlanta was attempting to lure Chiquita, but has dropped out of contention due to advanced levels of negotations with Charlotte. Hopefully it's a 2 horse race with Charlotte and Cinncy.

_________________

Also, the city and county both met privately within the last 2 weeks to approve incenctives to an unknown company looking to relocate or expand here. Not sure who that company is, but they had already met for Chiquita, so hopefully it's another large project.

[HopHead]

I find it interesting that Chiquita seems to be such a hot "commodity". It's not an enormous amount of jobs, but hundreds of very high paying ones. I thought Atlanta was already out of the race (or never was really in it). Is there a timeline on them making a decision? I see on Twitter that the local CLT folks are still in full recruiting mode on that one.

Edited October 23, 2011 by dbull75

[kermit]

The Chamber has scheduled a jobs announcement for 10:30 tomorrow..... Wednesday

EDIT: Mea culpa -- I misread my email from the Chamber

Edited October 25, 2011 by kermit

[rjp212]

Was there an announcement today?

[tozmervo]

There's an announcement this morning about who won construction and design bids for DNC2012 - maybe that's what they're referring to?

[HopHead]

It was announced that a number of Charlotte and NC-based firms will be getting the contracts to help with the 2012 DNC. In fact, Charlotte-based Rodgers Builders will be handling the TWC arena overhaul. Good news here is that the DNC is giving out the work to LOCAL companies and not so much firms from elsewhere in the country. Lots of local jobs to be had.

BTW - did anyone see the blip on the news about how Charlotte may be investigating a Summer Olympics bid? It's likely for 2020 or 2024.

[ah59396]

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Charlotte-to-chase-the-Olympics-132490128.html

As long as our motto isn't "Why not Charlotte?", I'm all for it. Just brace for the massive spending outcry that is soon to follow.

[DMann]

The Big Jobs Announcement will actually be Wednesday morning.