Economic Development - Expansions and Relocations

[Blue_Devil]

3 minutes ago, atlrvr said:

They are apparently going to the Deloitte building at legacy union.

 

Does that make the Deloitte building close to 100% leased? 

[KJHburg]

16 minutes ago, Blue_Devil said:

Does that make the Deloitte building close to 100% leased? 

It was 75% or so last time I heard so it must be close.   

[turbocraig]

Looks like the official announcement is coming tomorrow. 
 

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article250071454.html

[KJHburg]

Robinhood is supposed to announce its new Charlotte office today.

But here is a pool equipment manufacturer moving its HQ to Charlotte and expanded their plant in Clemmons in Forsyth County.

http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/03/29/2201044/0/en/Hayward-Holdings-Announces-Corporate-Relocation-To-North-Carolina.html

this is a publicly traded company on the NYSE so a good win for NC and Charlotte. 

Hayward Pool Products' Clemmons facility to gain jobs as corporate headquarters moves from NJ to Charlotte | Local | journalnow.com

Edited March 30, 2021 by KJHburg

[Clemson16]

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article250308434.html

Here’s the Robinhood announcement for 400 jobs coming to Charlotte. Wikipedia says their 2020 employee count is roughly 1,200 so this will be a large presence for them.

[KJHburg]

Project Ace, aka Robinhood, is bringing 389 new jobs between 2021-2015 to Charlotte. It's a $11.78M investment, including $5.9M in real estate investment.

here is the Biz Journal story

Fintech app developer Robinhood to bring 389 jobs to Charlotte in local expansion - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

[rancenc]

Additional news on Robinhood's expansion of it's operations in Charlotte.

https://www.nccommerce.com/news/press-releases/fintech-company-robinhood-create-nearly-400-new-jobs-mecklenburg-county

[KJHburg]

Dentsply Sirona the dental equipment manufacturer continues to expand its Ballantyne HQ even though it gave up the NC incentives.  The great thing besides adding jobs is their dental training center which brings 1000s of people every year to this office which is good for hotels and tourism. 

Dentsply Sirona CEO outlines local expansion after nixing North Carolina incentives agreement - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

""He is, however, confident in its ongoing growth here. Dentsply Sirona plans to bring several hundred people to Charlotte over the next decade, he said.  The company employs nearly 300 people locally. Its headquarters is at 13320-B Ballantyne Corporate Place.   Lisa Yankie, chief human resources officer at Dentsply Sirona, said the firm has been hiring for central functions, such as finance operations, human resources and digital marketing. Dentsply Sirona hires locally and from other markets. Its website shows about 80 job openings in North Carolina.  Physical expansion in Charlotte is also underway. Dentsply Sirona plans to open a roughly 70,000-square-foot innovation center later this year close to its corporate office.""

""Pre-pandemic, Dentsply Sirona would see about 10,000 dentists through its academy, plus thousands more partners, Casey said. The goal is to expand capacity to about 20,000 people annually post-pandemic.  Dentsply Sirona's training academy has classrooms, wet labs and milling spaces. It is increasing training space by 50%, with two new labs and two training rooms spanning 15,000 square feet. The company now has about 140,000 square feet total of office and training space."""

[kermit]

^ UNCC Dental school in an uptown campus!

(I believe there are only two in the state, Chapel Hill and ECU)

Edited March 31, 2021 by kermit

[Richhamleigh, DC]

2 hours ago, kermit said:

^ UNCC Dental school in an uptown campus!

(I believe there are only two in the state, Chapel Hill and ECU)

What?  Huh?  Next to the Book Stack?

[kermit]

10 minutes ago, Phillydog said:

What?  Huh?  Next to the Book Stack?

Sorry, I meant it would be nice. I did not mean to imply I had any actual information. But a dental school might make a nice complement to the medical school and Dentsply HQ and research.

[kermit]

Now that MLB made corporate discomfort with Georgia's new voter suppression laws tangible (before the All Star game decision it was just posturing), its clear that our biggest competitor has encountered some serious headwinds.  This means there are lots of new opportunities for Charlotte economic developers to pitch firms that were previously headed to Atlanta -- Its gonna be tough to sell your customer base and employees that a corporate HQ move to Atlanta is a good idea for a couple of years at least.

Edited April 5, 2021 by kermit

[LvninATLviaCLT]

Not wanting to get political, I live in Georgia and have read the bill because some of the things I heard were bothersome. All are lies in the media about this bill. Its not bad and actually expands voting and the water thing is not true. Read the bill for yourselves. Dont just take my word and definitely not the media's and politicians words. They have a misinformation agenda for sure. The corporations and MLB have caved to the cancel culture

[Durhamite]

13 minutes ago, LvninATLviaCLT said:

Not wanting to get political, I live in Georgia and have read the bill because some of the things I heard were bothersome. All are lies in the media about this bill. Its not bad and actually expands voting and the water thing is not true. Read the bill for yourselves. Dont just take my word and definitely not the media's and politicians words. They have a misinformation agenda for sure. The corporations and MLB have caved to the cancel culture

The entire impetus for the bill was based on  damn lie, that there is  voter fraud.  It doesn;t exist, hell, it's hard enough to get people to vote one time.   All made up by a a sore loer and snowflake D Trump.   Cancel this stupid bill like they canceled Trump.

[atlrvr]

*** moderator note***

Enough on politics.  Will leave the two posts above but will delete any more.  Take it to the coffee house.

[RANYC]

On 2/11/2021 at 1:04 PM, Blue_Devil said:

Said it in the Centene thread, but Centene will be moving there headquarters to Charlotte. Official announcement in the next month or two. 

Can someone point me to the guidelines disclosure for this thread, or is it just moderator discretion?  A political development in one state that potentially creates an opening for recruitment and expansion in NC/Charlotte seems reasonably within bounds as long as comments aren't pejorative, no?

Also, I think if Microsoft having misgivings about its recent decision to make GA its hub east of the Mississippi, Charlotte and/or NC should be all over it.  Having said that, I wonder if that sort of recruitment approach has ever worked...exploiting a state's possible economic vulnerability caused by a controversial piece of legislation.   Are there examples of this?

Edited April 2, 2021 by RANYC

[atlrvr]

***clarifying note*** 

Feel free to speculate on economic impacts, though I suspect most visiting this thread are looking for specific news or at least rumors.

What will be deleted (and one post already has) is debating the merits/lack of merits or the politics behind the bill.  

[U_R_]

Just my two cents on this issue...

The bill definitely is not painting Georgia in a good light, and I do feel that it could have some potentially negative repercussions for Atlanta.  What those repercussions are...I don't really know.  Atlanta has not really received many high profile corporate relocations recently,  so I think it would mostly affect new office expansions and so forth. However, I feel that the bill has especially received much more attention than it might have received in a different year because of how frequently GA has appeared in the news recently (Senate races, presidential elections, etc.).

On to my next point,  I am almost certain that Microsoft most definitely knew about the bill before announcing their Atlanta expansion. In their recent press release regarding their issues with the bill,  they reaffirmed their commitment to the Atlanta area, but that could all change depending on how things play out especially since there is a governor's election in 2022.  Google, even with all the news around the bill, announced an expansion to their expansion of their corporate offices in Atlanta. They are going from taking 5 floors of office to now taking 19 I believe, and the tower will have Google signage on it. 

Even with the passing of the bill, the Atlanta area still has all of the features that made it attractive in the first place (diverse tech scene, lower cost of living, good airport, excellent talent from places like GT, UGA, Morehouse, GSU, Emory,etc.). Overall, I doubt that Microsoft would completely abandon its Atlanta campus, but they could possibly think about downsizing its initial scope which is where the opportunity for Charlotte would be. 

Edited April 3, 2021 by Ric0_0

[Richhamleigh, DC]

On 4/2/2021 at 3:35 PM, kermit said:

Now that MLB made corporate discomfort with Georgia's new voter suppression laws tangible (before the All Star game decision it was just corporate posturing), its clear that our biggest competitor has encountered some serious headwinds.  This means there are lots of new opportunities for Charlotte economic developers to pitch firms that were previously headed to Atlanta -- Its gonna be tough to sell your consumer base and employees that a corporate HQ move to Atlanta is a good idea for a couple of years at least.

Now is the time for the NCGA to start big incentives to lure the TV and Film industry back.  The amount of publicity generated by TV and film locations can't be beat.   I'm all about kicking the competition when they are down because of stupid political moves.  Payback is glorious.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Phillydog

[KJHburg]

from the Triangle Biz Journal about new job prospects for the state and this includes new business and big expansions.

""As of April 1, the state’s top recruitment agency, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, was looking at a pipeline with 191 total recruitment and expansion projects.

If North Carolina were to win all of them, it would mean 63,000 new jobs and $22 billion in new investment.  “That compares to the nearly 200 active projects we were working at the onset of the pandemic,” said EDPNC CEO Chris Chung in an email. “While we are still down somewhat compared to that high-water market, this is the fullest the pipeline has been in the past year.”"

Obviously we won't win them all but there are a lot of companies looking to expand to NC 

Here is a breakdown:

""Here’s how the sectors stacked up:

Food, beverage and agriculture: 36 projects
Biotech, pharma and life sciences: 19
Chemicals, plastics and rubber: 18
Automotive/motor vehicles: 15
Textiles, apparel and sporting goods: 14
Information Technology: 10  ""

NC's robust jobs pipeline could be sign recovery ready for takeoff - Triangle Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

and I hear rumors of this kind of office and that for this city specifically.  

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

On 4/2/2021 at 6:38 PM, RANYC said:

Also, I think if Microsoft having misgivings about its recent decision to make GA its hub east of the Mississippi, Charlotte and/or NC should be all over it.  Having said that, I wonder if that sort of recruitment approach has ever worked...exploiting a state's possible economic vulnerability caused by a controversial piece of legislation.   Are there examples of this?

Microsoft purchased a major greyfield site in a fairly rundown part of Atlanta. They are in for a long haul build-out and redevelopment. I don't think they will be reactionary to this bill.

Edited April 5, 2021 by CarolinaDaydreamin

[Norm2]

1 hour ago, CarolinaDaydreamin said:

Microsoft purchased a major greyfield site in a fairly rundown part of Atlanta. They are in for a long haul build-out and redevelopment. I don't think they will be reactionary to this bill.

I don't think GA will suffer as much of an economic impact as NC did during the bathroom bill debacle.

[Blue_Devil]

14 minutes ago, norm21499 said:

I don't think GA will suffer as much of an economic impact as NC did during the bathroom bill debacle.

I suppose it depends on how much heat this picks up, or if other laws are passed. But I agree, I think when people look at the bill overall and see campaign volunteers can't hand out food or water as the main news headline, they don't really care. Its not right, but I don't thin this is causing the same commotion. 

[RANYC]

1 hour ago, Blue_Devil said:

I suppose it depends on how much heat this picks up, or if other laws are passed. But I agree, I think when people look at the bill overall and see campaign volunteers can't hand out food or water as the main news headline, they don't really care. Its not right, but I don't thin this is causing the same commotion. 

I agree that the impact of this controversy may not be retroactive, but I'd imagine it is possible to see this effecting a pause or a halt in corporate plans to relocate to or expand to Georgia for the time being.  Of course, the deals and expansions that you "didn't" get are much harder to measure.  

Also, to see the Georgia legislature use a $50 million tax break as some sort of pull cord on Delta, to either punish it or reward it for its statements out of or in alignment with some recent legislative initiative, is really disconcerting.   I don't hear this sort of politicization of incentives coming out of Raleigh, but I suppose that's because we have split government.  Incentives are, of course, key features of expansion and relocation plans.  It might be impactful to legislate something into our incentives process to keep their stability , once granted, immune to any sort of political football.

House Speaker David Ralston (R) acknowledged early Thursday that the move was meant as retaliation.

“They like our public policy when we’re doing things that benefit them, and they reap the rewards of those benefits and then turn around and do this,” Ralston told reporters, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting. “As all of you know, I can’t resist a country boy line or two, you don’t feed a dog that bites your hand. You’ve got to keep that in mind.”

Edited April 5, 2021 by RANYC

[Miesian Corners]

1 hour ago, RANYC said:

I agree that the impact of this controversy may not be retroactive, but I'd imagine it is possible to see this effecting a pause or a halt in corporate plans to relocate to or expand to Georgia for the time being.  Of course, the deals and expansions that you "didn't" get are much harder to measure.  

Also, to see the Georgia legislature use a $50 million tax break as some sort of pull cord on Delta, to either punish it or reward it for its statements out of or in alignment with some recent legislative initiative, is really disconcerting.   I don't hear this sort of politicization of incentives coming out of Raleigh, but I suppose that's because we have split government.  Incentives are, of course, key features of expansion and relocation plans.  It might be impactful to legislate something into our incentives process to keep their stability , once granted, immune to any sort of political football.

House Speaker David Ralston (R) acknowledged early Thursday that the move was meant as retaliation.

“They like our public policy when we’re doing things that benefit them, and they reap the rewards of those benefits and then turn around and do this,” Ralston told reporters, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting. “As all of you know, I can’t resist a country boy line or two, you don’t feed a dog that bites your hand. You’ve got to keep that in mind.”

Idiots don't seem to understand Delta employs 30,000 in metro Atlanta alone. Who has the teeth to bite, the GA GOP or Delta Air Lines?