Duke Energy Plaza Headquarters | 40 Story formerly Charlotte Metro Tower

[CLT2014]

14 minutes ago, Hunted said:

Yeah, that doesn’t make sense to me either. Why would informing the public negatively affect a project? I’m not following.

1. Duke Energy is trying to get approval from state regulators to increase rates on customers by double digit percentages to pay for coal ash

2. Building a skyscraper for management when you are trying to justify that you need to raise prices on customers can make it look like the rate increase is to fund "luxuries" like a fancy office, rather than basic operations of a publicly regulated utility. The regulator could point to the tower plans and say "so this is why you need to raise rates? To build yourself a glass and marble lobby?"

3. Duke has taken a lot of PR hits and has been focused on branding themselves as less corporate (think all the lineman ad campaigns). A fancy building for corporate while they are trying to get past the coal ash problems, people drinking bottled water years later, etc... can look bad.

Edited January 22, 2018 by CLT2014

[Guest]

I mean, literally from the horses mouth was that the media coverage of the tower contributed significantly in this tower being put on the back burner.

[Durhamite]

1 hour ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

I mean, literally from the horses mouth was that the media coverage of the tower contributed significantly in this tower being put on the back burner.

No doubt as I am in this biz.  Matter of fact people contact their utility for three reasons: (1) activate/deactivate service, (2) complain about the bill or to setup other payment options, (3) an outage or inconsistent service .   By far the worst customer affinity/relationship than any other industry.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Durhamite

[rancenc]

Me personally, the fact that Toronto is listed raises the prospect of a national tug of war.  It is NO secret that our illustrious President Trump has no love for CEO Jeff Bezos.  It would not surprise me that Amazon locates their secondary office in Canada.

In terms of the fact that Charlotte was not on the final list, I am definitely not despairing or even second guessing why.  A lot of cities such as Minneapolis, San Diego, Houston, Tamp-St Pete, Jacksonville FL, Kansas City MO, St Louis,,,,,were not listed either.  I think Charlotte is still ranked and will continued to be ranked high on both headquarters and/or expansion lists!

[Dale]

In the end, Charlotte will take its place beside 199 other cities which, I suppose, are supposed to sustain a blow to their psyche.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Dale

[cjd5050]

21 minutes ago, rancenc said:

Me personally, the fact that Toronto is listed raises the prospect of a national tug of war.  It is NO secret that our illustrious President Trump has no love for CEO Jeff Bezos.  It would not surprise me that Amazon locates their secondary office in Canada.

 

Right.  A company the size of Amazon is going to make a 50-year decision on where they locate their HQ because of a feud between the current 1st (and likely only) term president.    Basing a $5 billion dollar decision off a twitter feud.  Ya, that's how one of the biggest companies in the world would do things....

[15895]

39 minutes ago, cjd5050 said:

Right.  A company the size of Amazon is going to make a 50-year decision on where they locate their HQ because of a feud between the current 1st (and likely only) term president.    Basing a $5 billion dollar decision off a twitter feud.  Ya, that's how one of the biggest companies in the world would do things....

 

I just have one picture as a response to this:

 

 

[cjd5050]

36 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

I just have one picture as a response to this:

 

 

So in a post thread talking about the well-documented dispute between Trump and Bezos and its effect on if Amazon would move the new HQ do a different country because of said dispute, a dispute which is over things like taxes and Amazon profits and nothing to do with equality issues, you post a picture referencing an equality campaign locally.  

You should just stick to downvotes without comments.  Understanding context is not your strong suit.  

[jtmonk]

Maybe we should just stick to the actual topic of this thread

[15895]

1 hour ago, cjd5050 said:

So in a post thread talking about the well-documented dispute between Trump and Bezos and its effect on if Amazon would move the new HQ do a different country because of said dispute, a dispute which is over things like taxes and Amazon profits and nothing to do with equality issues, you post a picture referencing an equality campaign locally.  

You should just stick to downvotes without comments.  Understanding context is not your strong suit.  

 

My point simply was optics/media/press do matter. 

 

Whether its amazon & Trump, Duke rate hike and a new tower, a pee pee law and North Carolina, or H&M dressing a child in “coolest monkey in the jungle” shirt.

 

Maybe you should be posting on city data or skyscraper city.  You seem very angry. 

Edited January 22, 2018 by AirNostrumMAD

[cjd5050]

2 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

My point simply was optics/media/press do matter. 

Whether its amazon & Trump, Duke rate hike and a new tower, a pee pee law and North Carolina, or H&M dressing a child in “coolest monkey in the jungle” shirt.

Maybe you should be posting on city data or skyscraper city.  You seem very angry. 

2

So your point was completely unrelated and unnecessary.  Got it.   Just like the comment about Trump and Amazon in a thread about South Tryon is unrelated. 

Not angry in the slightest.  I just call out virtue signaling and when people contradict themselves.  Do you need a safe space or a trigger warning next time?

It's also pretty amusing the people who preach tolerance are typically the least tolerant of all.    

Edited January 22, 2018 by cjd5050

[rancenc]

5 hours ago, rancenc said:

Me personally, the fact that Toronto is listed raises the prospect of a national tug of war.  It is NO secret that our illustrious President Trump has no love for CEO Jeff Bezos.  It would not surprise me that Amazon locates their secondary office in Canada.

In terms of the fact that Charlotte was not on the final list, I am definitely not despairing or even second guessing why.  A lot of cities such as Minneapolis, San Diego, Houston, Tamp-St Pete, Jacksonville FL, Kansas City MO, St Louis,,,,,were not listed either.  I think Charlotte is still ranked and will continued to be ranked high on both headquarters and/or expansion lists!

OPPPS....I actually thought I was in the AMAZON topic site when I posted this....sorry to have caused a "off the subject" moment!

[15895]

15 minutes ago, cjd5050 said:

So your point was completely unrelated and unnecessary.  Got it.   Just like the comment about Trump and Amazon in a thread about South Tryon is unrelated. 

Not angry in the slightest.  I just call out virtue signaling and when people contradict themselves.  Do you need a safe space or a trigger warning next time?

 

- It was told by RDF that Duke is postponing the tower because the media is already making details known. They’re probably nervous of the backlash of building a “vanity” tower while asking for a rate hike 

 

- People disagreed it would 

 

- I posted a picture of the most obvious example of the media/twitter causing Charlotte a PR nightmare (PayPal, etc amongst casualties and newspapers still citing HB2 as a stain to the Raleigh bid for Amazon.)  

 

And yes. You are angry. You need a Snickers 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2018 by AirNostrumMAD

[R.Talbott]

You guys should both drop it. It doesn’t really matter.

[15895]

12 minutes ago, R.Talbott said:

You guys should both drop it. It doesn’t really matter.

Of course it matters.

 

We were just relayed information that a large office tower won’t move forward. The office tower is the point of this thread. 

 

I agree that if people can’t be civil when discussing things, they should drop it. But :/ it’s absolutely relevant to what’s going on... 

 

I find it believable that optics would delay this project. And if someone disagrees, I , and everyone else probably, would love to hear their reason particularly if Its something else (Duke decided to keep more employees in Raleigh, dukes not expanding as fast, duke is considering cheaper locations, etc.) 

 

I never expected this tower though, so I’m not disappointed. Only because it would be too amazing to have as many office towers going up as there has been.

 

Edited January 22, 2018 by AirNostrumMAD

[R.Talbott]

I don’t think anyone even cares about the point you’re trying to make and it derailed the thread.

[Missmylab4]

It doesn’t really matter, Duke is slowly/soon  bringing in more people with the Progress merger lease expiring I believe in 2019. They’ll need the space, and it’ll be sooner than later. If they save face and help a spec building get off the ground so be it. No matter what they’ll need a lot more space soon. The question is do they save face and not build on their expensive lot or just help a spec building get off the ground to meet their needs?

[stiluvclt]

What "large office tower" "nogo" did you receive info about. This all seems so "cloak & dagger".

[Guest]

What "large office tower" "nogo" did you receive info about. This all seems so "cloak & dagger".

The one the topic is named after


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[EllAyyDub]

I am sure Duke will wait until after the rate hike shenanigans are completed to move on this front.  But are we sure the tower is on hold after that?  It makes more sense for them to just fire CK for such an egregious error than to put the entire project on hold for 3+ years.  

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, EllAyyDub said:

I am sure Duke will wait until after the rate hike shenanigans are completed to move on this front.  But are we sure the tower is on hold after that?  It makes more sense for them to just fire CK for such an egregious error than to put the entire project on hold for 3+ years.  

They need space now honestly, I think the problem might be that the rate hike is in danger of getting approved.

[cjd5050]

12 hours ago, Missmylab4 said:

It doesn’t really matter, Duke is slowly/soon  bringing in more people with the Progress merger lease expiring I believe in 2019. They’ll need the space, and it’ll be sooner than later. If they save face and help a spec building get off the ground so be it. No matter what they’ll need a lot more space soon. The question is do they save face and not build on their expensive lot or just help a spec building get off the ground to meet their needs?

I wonder if there is some sort of a PR stunt they could pull by adding in a cultural or educational component to the project to appease the local masses and hope customers outside of the region do not notice.  On the heels of missing out on a certain technology company bid and the shortage of a tech labor pool in Charlotte, now could be the time to piggyback off that and propose some sort of Center of Excellence or whatnot at the base of the tower that would help Charlotte overcome this issue.   Maybe something in collaboration with UNCC?  With the blue line extension about to open there could be a pitch to expand advanced studies from the campus to Uptown via the line.   

At least that's how I would pitch it.  

[Durhamite]

1 hour ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

They need space now honestly, I think the problem might be that the rate hike is in danger of getting approved.

A rate hike will get approved, maybe not at the expected target number.  The entire movement towards the modern grid ("smart" grid) and cyber security threats are huge leveraging tools for Duke.

Edited January 23, 2018 by Durhamite

[SydneyCarton]

I know someone involved (though not at Duke).  It's expected that this will be approved a la King Solomon.  If you want $5, ask for $10.   When the other side offers $3, settle at $4, and everyone's a winner.

Hopefully, once the rate hike is resolved, the tower will then be back on track. 

Edited January 23, 2018 by SydneyCarton

[Twin Citian]

On 1/22/2018 at 12:20 PM, rancenc said:

Me personally, the fact that Toronto is listed raises the prospect of a national tug of war.  It is NO secret that our illustrious President Trump has no love for CEO Jeff Bezos.  It would not surprise me that Amazon locates their secondary office in Canada.

In terms of the fact that Charlotte was not on the final list, I am definitely not despairing or even second guessing why.  A lot of cities such as Minneapolis, San Diego, Houston, Tamp-St Pete, Jacksonville FL, Kansas City MO, St Louis,,,,,were not listed either.  I think Charlotte is still ranked and will continued to be ranked high on both headquarters and/or expansion lists!

Neither the Minneapolis area nor Minnesota offered Amazon much.  MN Gov. Mark Dayton made it clear that bidding for Amazon would be sending a wrong message to the state's ~30 Fortune 1000 based companies, including Target and Best Buy, as well as every other business entity.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out though. as Amazon may end up buying Target and perhaps one or two other Minneapolis area-based companies.  Minneapolis could end up losing thousands of jobs or becoming another headquarters and gaining thousands of jobs.  

 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Twin Citian