The Good News Report

[cltbwimob]

AvidXchange, a Charlotte based software company, is looking to add 85 jobs in Charlotte.

Extended Stay will hire 60-65 in Charlotte.

7-11 will add 120 jobs as part of their acquisition of 55 Sam's Mart stores.

I don't know why this wasn't mentioned, but Diamler trucks is adding 1200 jobs at it's Charlotte area plants. This should put them back to within a few hundred employees of their highest employment levels.

[HopHead]

China-based RATO, a manufacturer of engines and all-terrain vehicles, will open its North American headquarters in eastern Lincoln county. They will have 40 executive level employees and up to 600 new employees at it's temporary manufacturing facility by this fall. The company is currently scouting sites for a permanent location. They also want to bring R&D and distribution facility to the US. They are currently scouting the Carolinas and Georgia for that, so there's a possibility all of this could reside right outside of Charlotte (I think, the article was slightly confusing). Total employment could be north of 1,000.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/outside_the_loop/2012/02/chinese-company-to-open-in-lincoln.html?page=all

[28202]

That East Lincoln area is getting huge interest from developers. Several large parcels have been acquired and now that the Lincoln building moratorium is over development is getting back underway. Might be the front end of a western side of Lake Norman explosion.

[browngeo]

The west side of Lake Norman does look to explode with easy access to airport and new 16 is really opening it up.

[HopHead]

Novant, the parent of Charlotte-based Presbyterian Healthcare, will be hiring 150 employees as a part of an electronic medical records project. They will be investing $500 million in their Fort Mill facility. Most of the jobs will include Information Technology, clinical and other business functions. The number of jobs could eventually grow to 300 at the facility.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2012/02/21/novant-to-hire-150-in-fort-mill-for.html

[kermit]

Bev is coming to the Chamber today for a 'sizable' jobs announcement. The Chamber announced the 'announcement' this morning. Anyone have any early news?

[kermit]

^ The Chamber Press Release:

XPO Logistics to Open North American Operations Center Creating Over 200 Jobs

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue announced today that XPO Logistics, Inc. will open a North American Operations Center in Charlotte. XPO Logistics, a third party transportation logistics provider, is headquartered in Buchanan, Michigan. The company will create over 200 jobs in the functions of accounting and finance, human resources, IT, brokerage, and carrier procurement and operations, with an average wage of more than $56,606 annually. The company is currently in lease negotiations for Charlotte office space.

[HopHead]

Not sure this falls in the "Good News" category just yet, but former Starbucks CEO Jim Donald has been named the new CEO of Extended Stay Hotels. As you know they relocated to Charlotte last year from Spartanburg, SC. They recently ramped up hiring at their Ballantyne HQ with a rebranding and an IPO supposedly in the works. For those that don't know, Jim has a history of aggressively growing companies. He pushed Walmart into the grocery business and Starbucks grew dramatically during his tenure with the company. Will be interesting to see what he does for Extended Stay Hotels.

[kermit]

Not big news but the Chamber has announced that a company called Tire Intelligence (they provided data to tire manufacturers and dealers) will rent 7,000 sq ft in 1910 South blvd (the building where LaPaz used to be I believe). They will hire 30.

While the number of jobs created is small, I thought that the office location was interesting (I would have assumed a company like this would have preferred Ballantyne). Now if they could only get some of the Southborough office space rented......

[kermit]

Vahterus (a Finnish heat exchanger manufacturer) will open its first North American office in Matthews. Initial employment will be trivial, but it appears they will set up a manufacturing facility in the area within three years. Just guessing here but I suspect that this is another potential brick to build the local energy cluster.

http://charlottechamber.com/clientuploads/Economic_pdfs/Announcements/Vahterus_Release.pdf

[southslider]

Per a blog post by Urbanophile Aaron Renn, the Charlotte metro ranked 4th in the nation for job growth in terms of percentage change from 2010 to 2011:

http://www.urbanophile.com/2012/03/15/metro-job-recovery-in-2011/

[southslider]

^Adding to my above post, The Atlantic also has recent US metro area job growth displayed in a map:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/03/us-cities-fastest-growing-job-markets/1504/

[dubone]

I was about to post a similar map. If this trend continues it may be a very good story for them to tell at the DNC. It is great to see both Raleigh and Charlotte at the high end (and Detroit, too).

[HopHead]

^Adding to my above post, The Atlantic also has recent US metro area job growth displayed in a map:

http://www.theatlant...b-markets/1504/

Even thought Charlotte did get dinged pretty good in the great recession, it's good to see we're back in growth mode. And to be, at least percentage wise, in the same ballpark as Houston, Austin and San Jose is a good thing.

[DCMetroRaleigh]

Charlotte has proven itself resilient, nearly recession-proof. The city should be very proud of its ability to weather the worst economic collapse since the Depression.

[krazeeboi]

Resilient, yes. "Nearly recession-proof"? Not quite.

[southslider]

Note we need faster growth to compensate for the jobs lost. In other words, Charlotte has some bounce back following the Great Recession, but it still very much stung us.

[ah59396]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/04/13/3170517/wells-fargo-earns-4-billion-in.html

Good news for Wells Fargo should be considered good news for Charlotte. So posting earnings like that is great to hear.

[nonillogical]

http://www.charlotte...billion-in.html

Good news for Wells Fargo should be considered good news for Charlotte. So posting earnings like that is great to hear.

Except that they are getting ready to institute new account fees next week, and there's going to be a big outcry with that timing...

[kermit]

Color me dubious but there is an announcement at the Chamber tomorrow. The following was contained in their invitation email:

Precedent-Setting, International

Economic Development Announcement

in partnership with Central Piedmont Community College.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

3:00 p.m.

[rugger62]

Color me dubious but there is an announcement at the Chamber tomorrow. The following was contained in their invitation email:

Nothing on the Observer, CBJ or CPCC websites yet...

[Guest]

better not be hyperbole, I'll be pissed.

[DigitalSky]

better not be hyperbole, I'll be pissed.

I'm not holding my breath.

[kermit]

^Me neither. When I see the words 'precedent setting" I assume its code for 'not a big deal yet''

Hope I am wrong

[kermit]

The Chamber letdown took even less time than usual. They just sent me this email correction to the original "jobs announcement"

Our initial invitation to the Chamber’s April 17 economic development announcement referred in the subject line to a “jobs announcement.”

Tomorrow’s event will unveil an exciting new international partnership

that will enhance Charlotte’s competitiveness in recruiting international companies. It is not a traditional jobs announcement, and we apologize

for any confusion this may have created.

~ Charlotte Chamber Economic Development team