Triangle Economic News

[rolly]

Chapel Hill is so progressive that it's hard to develop there. Downtown projects take forever to get approved with all the NIMBYs and onerous requirements.  And housing is expensive and highly restricted, so the demand is not met.  If you are one of the lucky to get an affordable place, that's great. But many are priced out the area entirely. 

That's why is the slowest growing part of the Triangle. Again, great for the elites, not so good for the bottom tier. 

Edited November 20, 2019 by rolly

[SydneyCarton]

12 minutes ago, rolly said:

Chapel Hill is so progressive that it's hard to develop there. Downtown projects take forever to get approved with all the NIMBYs and onerous requirements.  And housing is expensive and highly restricted, so the demand is not met.  If you are one of the lucky to get an affordable place, that's great. But many are priced out the area entirely. 

That's why is the slowest growing part of the Triangle. Again, great for the elites, not so good for the bottom tier. 

That’s true.  I don’t regard it as expensive because it’s way cheaper than where we lived in Myers Park and dramatically cheaper than where we initially came from in NY years ago, but you are right.  

[rolly]

It's a beautiful and idyllic area though. The entrance from I-40 when you transition to Franklin St is lined with wonderfully landscaped homes.

A nice and compact area and a classic college town. It's understandable why people like to live there. 

[KJHburg]

 

Overall the Triangle office market is doing great.  The most new construction in the entire quad cities area Raleigh Durham Cary Chapel Hill is in downtown Raleigh with over 900,000 sq ft under construction in 3 major projects and more to come.  Overall over 1.4 M sq ft of office space has been absorbed in the market in 2019 through Sept. 30.   In the report,  a fully vacant building in Cary is now 80% leased to Anthem and Xerox.  (Apple previously looked at this building)

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/11/20/report-triangle-office-demand-drives-up-rents-cuts-vacancies-to-record-levels/

 

Edited November 20, 2019 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

BIG job announcement for Durham County today over 740 jobs!  Biotech jobs.  Q2 Solutions.   Happy Thanksgiving Triangle area! 

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/11/27/new-joint-venture-between-iqvia-and-quest-diagnostics-adding-749-biotech-jobs-to-rtp/

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/11/27/companys-expansion-could-mean-more-than-700-jobs.html

[SydneyCarton]

On 11/20/2019 at 3:06 PM, KJHburg said:

 

Overall the Triangle office market is doing great.  The most new construction in the entire quad cities area Raleigh Durham Cary Chapel Hill is in downtown Raleigh with over 900,000 sq ft under construction in 3 major projects and more to come.  Overall over 1.4 M sq ft of office space has been absorbed in the market in 2019 through Sept. 30.   In the report,  a fully vacant building in Cary is now 80% leased to Anthem and Xerox.  (Apple previously looked at this building)

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/11/20/report-triangle-office-demand-drives-up-rents-cuts-vacancies-to-record-levels/

 

I could see the combined Xerox-HP moving to the Triangle lock, stock, and barrel.  They will need to cut costs dramatically.

[Richhamleigh, DC]

On 11/20/2019 at 10:07 AM, rolly said:

Chapel Hill is so progressive that it's hard to develop there. Downtown projects take forever to get approved with all the NIMBYs and onerous requirements.  And housing is expensive and highly restricted, so the demand is not met.  If you are one of the lucky to get an affordable place, that's great. But many are priced out the area entirely. 

That's why is the slowest growing part of the Triangle. Again, great for the elites, not so good for the bottom 

Clarification?  Conservatives are against change.  People who are "progressive" politically, or socially, or even economically are champions of change.  These same people may also be, when it comes to change and being against it, "conservative".  Durham suffers from this too.  But in Durham, my experience is that it's racial and economic.  "Onerous" regulations?  Because the private sector developers are so concerned with development that doesn't become a burden to the taxpayer in 20 years after they've left?  As a city planning director, trained as urban designer, I agree that town planning and zoning have become stale and overwrought though generally mainly because planners aren't designers, they are trained to think in words, not design and there are some serious deficits in imagination.  Cities used to be "designed", now they regulated to death.  So, I kind of agree with you but not with the why part?   

Edited December 3, 2019 by Phillydog

[KJHburg]

Raleigh named #2 best tech town after Austin and Charlotte comes in #6 this year.

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/12/03/raleigh-is-no-2-tech-town-in-us-behind-austin-durham-ranks-15th/

[RALNATIVE]

6 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Raleigh named #2 best tech town after Austin and Charlotte comes in #6 this year.

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/12/03/raleigh-is-no-2-tech-town-in-us-behind-austin-durham-ranks-15th/

I'm not buying that Charlotte is ahead of cities like Denver, Atlanta, D.C., and Boston (?!?).  I know those cities well and they have a much larger tech presence than Charlotte. Afterall those cities made Amazon's top 20 list but Charlotte didn't precisely for that reason.

They must have shelled out some big bucks to get a higher spot on this list, but hard to believe anyone will buy this.

[KJHburg]

8 minutes ago, RALNATIVE said:

I'm not buying that Charlotte is ahead of cities like Denver, Atlanta, D.C., and Boston (?!?).  I know those cities well and they have a much larger tech presence than Charlotte. Afterall those cities made Amazon's top 20 list but Charlotte didn't precisely for that reason.

They must have shelled out some big bucks to get a higher spot on this list, but hard to believe anyone will buy this.

the tech community is exploding in Charlotte and has been for the last 5-7 years with homegrown firms like AvidXchange, and all our banks hire lots of tech people. Lowes is opening a 2000 job tech center and that was announced earlier in the year.  Plus MUFG Union Bank a big Japanese bank opened up a tech center here as did Moodys.  Credit Karma is here and just doubled their office space.  Much of the tech jobs are in fin-tech but several pure play tech companies are here like Passport, Stratifyd etc.  Check out the Charlotte Tech News thread in the Charlotte UP site.  Our 2 largest banks have technology departments of 1000s upon 1000s of people in Charlotte.  Microsoft just announced 430 new jobs here as well in addition to their 1000 jobs here already. 

it is not based on the size of the tech market but the growth, the cost, average wage etc. 

Edited December 3, 2019 by KJHburg

[SlackJack]

I read through the Charlotte Tech News thread, and it seems that almost all the tech increase is directly or indirectly related to fin-tech (as you suggested), which makes complete sense due to the heavy banking presence. Lowes Home Improvement is one of the exceptions, but it is already based in Mooresville. Time will tell if this significantly expands into non-financial areas, and I suspect that it will.

However, most tech hubs are much more broadly based. The Triangle has fin-tech companies like Credit Suisse and Fidelity, and manufacturers like Lenovo, but also world-class, leading-edge software companies like SAS, and leading-edge manufacturers like Cree, which has invested heavily in advanced silicon carbide wafer chips. NCSU has a quantum computing research hub (in conjunction with IBM). In fact, all tech hubs that I am aware of have at least one major research university at its core.

Comparing raw head count numbers between two areas doesn’t tell the complete story. This area is already seeing some Silicon Valley companies expanding small “outposts” here, and that trend will likely accelerate.

I still believe that the biggest strength of this area is being a major life sciences hub, because that infrastructure can’t be easily replicated.

[KJHburg]

from the Silicon Valley Business Journal about tech centers and Raleigh Durham is mentioned.   Go through the gallery of photos and look at the cost of living and see why Raleigh Durham is growing so fast.  As they said tech workers can go anywhere to work so quality of life and affordability are gaining even more importance,.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/12/09/heres-where-silicon-valley-s-f-are-in-new-pair-of.html

[SydneyCarton]

I’m really impressed with the vast intellectual resources of the Chapel Hill area.  This area offers some serious talent for employers.

Edited December 10, 2019 by SydneyCarton

[Richhamleigh, DC]

https://www.inc.com/surge-cities

[KJHburg]

Very interesting article and this is the first time someone in NC government has confirmed the land buy of 280 acres in RTP Wake County section was related to Apple.  Most thought this something is afoot on this site and something will happen with Apple when is the big question I guess.

https://www.wral.com/as-apple-expands-in-texas-nc-officials-withhold-details-on-efforts-to-land-tech-giant/18821997/

[RALNATIVE]

Microsoft to add 500 new jobs in the Triangle.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article238459408.html

 

[KJHburg]

Here is the Business Journal article about the Microsoft expansion of 500 jobs average pay $123K in Morrisville.   This is a great for the Triangle.

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/12/17/microsoft-picks-morrisville-over-houston-for-500.html

[KJHburg]

I think this is a big deal for Raleigh and a possible Fortune 500 or 1000 HQ the new Fortive  spinoff company Vontier.

They will need some class A office space and employs a couple of hundred I would think as the HQ of a company with 8400 employees or even larger.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fortive-announces-global-industrial-company-134500979.html

also from wraltechwire

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2020/01/15/new-firm-focusing-on-transportation-with-8400-employees-to-be-based-in-raleigh/

Edited January 15, 2020 by KJHburg

[Rufus]

7 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I think this is a big deal for Raleigh and a possible Fortune 500 or 1000 HQ the new Fortive  spinoff company Vontier.

They will need some class A office space and employs a couple of hundred I would think as the HQ of a company with 8400 employees or even larger.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fortive-announces-global-industrial-company-134500979.html

also from wraltechwire

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2020/01/15/new-firm-focusing-on-transportation-with-8400-employees-to-be-based-in-raleigh/

On 10/25/2019 at 4:41 PM, Rufus said:

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/10/25/this-2-8b-firm-could-be-the-triangles-next-public.html?iana=hpmvp_trig_news_headline

This is an interesting article. Fortive, a F500 company in Everett, WA, is looking to split up into two companies: Fortive and NewCo (assuming this is just a placeholder). NewCo is supposedly moving to "Raleigh-Durham," so take this to mean as mostly RTP. This is a new $2.8 billion company to locate here, joining Advance Auto Parts, Syneos, Martin Marietta, First Citizens, BMC Stock Building Supply as the only public $1b+ companies in Raleigh. Elsewhere in the Triangle are Cornerstone Building Brands, Cree, IQVIA, and Pyxus International with $1b+ in revenue. 

See my post from October. The one chance I have to get something ahead of you KJ!!

But still...I'm super excited to see how this turns out. 

[KJHburg]

1 minute ago, Rufus said:

See my post from October. The one chance I have to get something ahead of you KJ!!

But still...I'm super excited to see how this turns out. 

I do remember that and this is  multi billion dollar company the kind that likes their name on atop a building.  I just wonder why it is not getting more press and is an official announcement forthcoming?  

[KJHburg]

Here is the Triangle Biz Journal article about Fortive spinoff company moving its HQ to Raleigh.  It is a $2.8 Billion company.

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2020/01/15/more-details-on-a-new-public-company-setting-up-hq.html

[Rufus]

19 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I do remember that and this is  multi billion dollar company the kind that likes their name on atop a building.  I just wonder why it is not getting more press and is an official announcement forthcoming?  

One can only hope that it happens when the spin-off takes place and it becomes a standalone company. 

Also, one can wish that by having their HQ in Raleigh, they mean downtown and not NH or Brier Creek or Morrisville or RTP...

I'd love to see them on something like 121 Fayetteville St. 

[po-boy]

Eli Lilly bringing over 450 jobs to Durham. 

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2020/01/21/pharma-giant-eli-lilly-and-company-taps-durham-for.html?iana=hpmvp_trig_news_headline

[rolly]

Another version: https://www.wraltechwire.com/2020/01/21/eli-lilly-returns-to-rtp-with-470m-plant-for-diabetes-drugs/

[KJHburg]

Is this going to be located inside the RTP or just nearby in Durham county?  I could not find that bit of information. 

I answered my own question in the Parmer RTP campus the old Glaxo campus.

from the Durham Sun Herald

""Eli Lilly will put its facility on the Parmer RTP campus in Research Triangle Park, a spokeswoman for the company said. The Parmer campus was once home to a sprawling collection of GlaxoSmithKline offices — but GSK sold its holdings there and only leases a few buildings now.

MOST HIRING WILL BE IN 2023
Eli Lilly won’t begin hiring significant numbers of employees until 2023, though the company will hire around a dozen employees this year to oversee the start of the project. The company currently has around 135 remote workers in North Carolina that work in sales.

It’s a return of sorts to RTP for Eli Lilly. The company had operations in the park from 1994 to 2004, when it shut down a lab that employed 142 people during a restructuring of the company, The News & Observer reported at the time. At that time, Eli Lilly owned property near Cornwallis Road and T.W. Alexander Drive, which it acquired when it bought Sphinx Pharmaceuticals.  Trulicity is a self-injectable drug for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes and manufactured by Eli Lilly. Rick Bowmer AP
Founded in 1901, Eli Lilly employs around 33,000 people across the world, with more than 7,700 employees specifically working in research and development. The company says it spends around $5.3 billion in R&D expenditures annually.    

PHARMACEUTICAL JOBS IN DURHAM
Durham County has seen a spate of pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs in recent years thanks to incentives from the state.  Last year, Merck said it would add around 400 manufacturing jobs in Durham in exchange for $12.5 million in incentives, The News & Observer reported. Another company, AveXis, plans to bring manufacturing jobs to Durham after receiving multiple incentives.   Corning, which makes materials used in pharmaceutical manufacturing, said in 2018 it would create more than 300 jobs in Durham after receiving an incentive package, The Herald-Sun reported.""

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2020 by KJHburg