Economic Development - Expansions and Relocations

[Dale]

On 7/1/2018 at 9:14 PM, Cadi40 said:

 Hopefully the number in rural areas diminish. I don’t like the stereotype that NC is rural. 

What’s wrong with rural folks ?

 

[SgtCampsalot]

On 7/11/2018 at 11:27 AM, Cadi40 said:

Hopefully the number in rural areas diminish. I don’t like the stereotype that NC is rural. 

Rural/small town is better than suburban *fight me* because suburban is what you will get for 99% of developable rural land *FIGHT ME*

Edited November 1, 2018 by SgtCampsalot

[KJHburg]

Looks like Northern Virginia and Arlington County will be the home of Amazon HQ2.  I still thought Atlanta would be a better fit for true cost savings but I always had DC area in the top 3.  Now maybe all the companies holding back plans will announce as this seems imminent.   Having lived in Northern VA this will drive housing prices there even higher  but the area needs to to diversify away from government and government contractors. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/amazon-in-advanced-talks-about-putting-hq2-in-northern-virginia-those-close-to-process-say/2018/11/02/9be831d6-d7c0-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html?utm_term=.54d573480071

Now after the election between Nov. 7 and end of the year look for big announcements here in NC including from one from a very large Cupertino CA company to RTP and temporarily in Cary.  But I think some jobs will be announced by others in Charlotte metro in this end of year job announcement flurry.  

[Dale]

CNBC with basically the same reportage but with Amazon down to Crystal City and Austin and possibly a split headquarters. The latter would give them a West, Central and East HQ’s.

[Niner National]

DC/NoVa traffic and COL are already awful. This is going to make things so much worse. I'm glad I no longer live there.

[15895]

55 minutes ago, Niner National said:

DC/NoVa traffic and COL are already awful. This is going to make things so much worse. I'm glad I no longer live there.

I’m very happy Amazon chose crystal city. I think it’s gonna be beyond fabulous and really change the area. 

I don’t have a car here so increased traffic doesn’t matter to me. 

[KJHburg]

Charlotte Chamber and Charlotte Regional Partnership announce new name of one combined economic development organization for greater Charlotte region.   https://charlottechamber.com/news/2018/11/27/chamber-news/charlotte-chamber-and-charlotte-regional-partnership-unveil-name-of-new-combined-organization/

[CLT704]

^ Anyone else think this is absolutely terrible? Tacky branding, too long a name, cringey slogan- nothing appears to really represent Charlotte.

[Nick2]

1 hour ago, CLT704 said:

^ Anyone else think this is absolutely terrible? Tacky branding, too long a name, cringey slogan- nothing appears to really represent Charlotte.

I wouldn't call it tacky but it is a little forgettable with the name. The branding could definitely have been better. The video is nice but why on Earth do they includ Chesterfield county sc but not Anson county NC in the map of the region?

The main point is to not represent Charlotte. It's to represent the Charlotte region. Charlotte is the heart and by far the most important city of the region but the Charlotte city limits only represents less than half of the metro population. The goal of this organization is to work together with surrounding counties and cities to make the entire metro thrive.

[KJHburg]

^^^ Anson County left the partnership and has aligned with Richmond Moore counties etc further east.  However with the new Monroe Bypass they are "closer" now to Charlotte and that will benefit them.  

This model they are using has been used in many major cities like in Houston home of the Greater Houston Partnership which sells the entire region to the world.  Their logo looks similar LOL   http://www.houston.org/

[J-Rob]

I am not a big fan of the logo, but here is the explanation for what it is worth:

I do think it is better to have one combined entity, so I am excited about that.

Most of you probably saw the announcement about Raleigh getting a Fortune 500 HQ.  I sure hope that is sign of things to come in Charlotte soon.  I doubt a Fortune 500 HQ move is in the works, but you never know, and I am hopeful we see some announcements in the next month or so as @KJHburg and a few others have alluded is possible.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2018/11/28/north-carolina-to-get-another-fortune-500-hq.html

[CLT704]

I have a major problem with the name, "regional" just sounds so small-scale. Region, Area, Metro would all sound so much better IMO. 

And I hope you're right about some announcements! I need my fix of big relocations! 

[kermit]

18 minutes ago, CLT704 said:

I have a major problem with the name, "regional" just sounds so small-scale. Region, Area, Metro would all sound so much better IMO. 

And I hope you're right about some announcements! I need my fix of big relocations! 

I know what you mean. The area doesn't match the metro definition so they can't use that.

Unfortunately the big problem with this whole thing is that the area they are promoting does not have a cohesive identity. None of the surrounding counties have any distinguishing features (from an ED perspective) -- they are just commodity products which, by definition, are impossible to sell at a premium price.

This money could be spent on much better things than paying a consultant to come up with a completely unmemorable logo and name.

[Miesian Corners]

This is so much worse. It's akin to Charlotte's terrible Amazon video.

[KJHburg]

From the Triangle Business Journal and yes NC wants to go after more HQs with a higher incentive for higher paying jobs.  This is a good thing.

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/11/27/ncs-plan-to-lure-more-corporate-hqs-raise-the.html?ana=e_me_set1&s=newsletter&ed=2018-11-28&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1543442777&j=85232191

NC of course has clawbacks if the companies don't fulfill their promises. 

 

[kermit]

13 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

From the Triangle Business Journal and yes NC wants to go after more HQs with a higher incentive for higher paying jobs.  This is a good thing.

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/11/27/ncs-plan-to-lure-more-corporate-hqs-raise-the.html?ana=e_me_set1&s=newsletter&ed=2018-11-28&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1543442777&j=85232191

NC of course has clawbacks if the companies don't fulfill their promises. 

 

That is a (sorta) good thing. Based on what we saw from Amazon, our incentives were an order of magnitude below most other bidders.

But it sure would be nice if incentives would just go away completely.....

[KJHburg]

1 minute ago, kermit said:

That is a (sorta) good thing. Based on what we saw from Amazon, our incentives were an order of magnitude below most other bidders.

But it sure would be nice if incentives would just go away completely.....

I agree but incentives are here to stay unfortunately.   However some states don't have clawbacks like NC does so our taxpayers are never out and most of the NC incentives are paid over years and years.

 

[kermit]

6 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I agree but incentives are here to stay unfortunately.   However some states don't have clawbacks like NC does so our taxpayers are never out and most of the NC incentives are paid over years and years.

 

While I agree that the state has decent clawbacks its not entirely accurate to say that taxpayers never get stuck with the bill. There is no way to clawback locally paid infrastructure provision. Forsyth county go stuck with some pretty big road costs as a result of Dell's departure.

[KJHburg]

^^^ well at least with roads they stay in the county and hopefully will help attract another business.  In terms of Dell plant I think Herbalife took over that plant so the roads did not go to waste.

 

[kermit]

20 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

^^^ well at least with roads they stay in the county and hopefully will help attract another business.  In terms of Dell plant I think Herbalife took over that plant so the roads did not go to waste.

Its true the roads stick around, but Forsyth budgeted its incentives around more than 1,000 Dell jobs, Herbalife employs less than half of that.

Other examples of taxpayers loosing when incentives go bad include expenditures on worker training (taxpayers wasted $163,000 on worker training for Alevo https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article169075352.html ) or in the case of bankruptcy (although NC's parceled payments help reduce this risk)

My nitpicks aside, I agree with you. The state does a pretty good job with its incentives contracts.

Edited November 29, 2018 by kermit

[KJHburg]

This is good news from the state house they are considering raising the incentives for headquarters type projects that pay high salaries.  And this is being done in mind for a couple of companies that could bring Thousands of jobs to NC.  From the Triangle Business Journal  https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/11/27/ncs-plan-to-lure-more-corporate-hqs-raise-the.html    

[KJHburg]

More of the new state incentives from Winston Salem paper aimed at companies paying $150,000 or more.  (now for Amazon and now possibly Apple the mega transformative incentive package is already out there and law) but this is for companies smaller than that but still significant.   This could be very good for the state's urban areas.  https://www.journalnow.com/business/business_news/local/n-c-senate-bill-would-likely-steer-incentives-for-corporate/article_18e8476e-7ae3-5ec1-bdf9-c968757dbdea.html   I do believe we will see some more major announcements this year before the end of the year.  

and it must be good as they are reporting on it in the Atlanta Business Chronicle 

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/11/29/north-carolina-lawmakers-aim-to-boost-incentives.html?ana=e_me_set2&s=newsletter&ed=2018-11-29&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1543497386&j=85255121

I 

[KJHburg]

In other news Forbes magazine names NC the Best state for business #1.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2018/11/28/the-best-states-for-business-2018-north-carolina-leads-the-way/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-dozen#794ff3933c30

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

This is huge!  

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article222371650.html

Fortune 100 Honeywell to the QC

[KJHburg]

Hmm a quick search on their Honeywell jobs webpage shows lots of jobs posted at a Fort Mill (Lancaster county office) in finance, HR etc.  They must be using this office as a springboard to the whole corporate HQ moving out of NJ a high tax corporate and property tax state to NC.      Great news for Charlotte and wonder a  Honeywell tower will join uptown possibly at Legacy or will that be the AXA tower?       

Here is a sampling below.  https://www.honeywell.com/careers

CFO Supply Chain Finance	req155618	USA-Fort Mill-9680 Old Bailes Rd	8/6/2018
Data Strategy/Business Intelligence Finance Lead	HRD40584	USA-Phoenix-1944 E Sky Harbor Circle	11/2/2018
Finance Manager	HRD46199	USA-Fort Mill-9680 Old Bailes Rd	10/30/2018
Financial Analyst	HRD43959	USA-Fort Mill-9680 Old Bailes Rd	10/15/2018
Lead Financial Analyst	HRD48148	USA-Fort Mill-9680 Old Bailes Rd	11/20/2018
Logistics Finance Analyst	HRD43061	USA-Fort Mill-9680 Old Bailes Rd	10/4/2018

 

few more  seem to me to be HQ type jobs for sure. 

Intellectual Property (IP) Paralegal	HRD43578	USA-Fort Mill-9680 Old Bailes Rd	10/10/2018
Patent Portfolio Manager	HRD39787	USA-Fort Mill-9680 Old Bailes Rd	8/31/2018
Procurement Lawyer- General Counsel	HRD23250	USA-Fort Mill-9680 Old Bailes Rd	8/28/2018

another company splitting up into 3 divisions is United Technologies wonder if we could get one of their new HQ like the Carrier one or the Aerospace one?   

Edited November 29, 2018 by KJHburg