Economic Development - Expansions and Relocations

[KJHburg]

Seems the Charlotte region is the main competitor on all fronts for Tampa St Pete.  According to this study noted in the Tampa Biz Journal we only beat them in manufacturing (which makes sense NC is a manufacturing powerhouse FL not so) and logistics and of course that makes sense too.  I would like to get in the details on the study on the other options.  I will be in Tampa in Jan. and I will be sure to snoop around.   (this all being said I like the I-4 corridor of Florida better than the other major metros south and NE) 

""The Tampa area's red hot real estate market has the potential to change how economic developers market the region to companies looking to create jobs here.

A newly released study commissioned by the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council found that while the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area can still count lower wages and a favorable tax environment among its competitive advantages, a rapidly rising rental and housing market counts as a disadvantage.

Barry Matherly, president and CEO of Hickey Global, the firm that conducted the study, said that one of two things typically happen when a traditionally low-cost area sees its cost of living rise: Either employers pay more and economic developers tout the area's amenities and quality of life, or wages remain low and the labor market becomes constricted.

"With a growing market like this, it's expected that there would be an increase in costs," Matherly told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

New York-based Hickey Global, an economic development consulting firm, used the same spreadsheets its site selection consultants use to evaluate prospective cities to model how the Tampa area stacks up to its typical competitors, like the Charlotte, North Carolina metro area, in terms of its seven target industries (financial and professional services; information technology; life sciences and health care; defense and security; manufacturing; and distribution and logistics).

Site selection consultants are among the most powerful players in economic development deals — particularly for the largest deals that create hundreds of jobs and represent millions of dollars in capital investment. When companies are looking to grow or expand, they engage site selectors, who use formulas to eliminate regions based on their clients' needs and factors like the labor market, talent pipeline, housing inventory, local taxes and more.

"The whole point of us doing this competitiveness study was for us to get our arms around all of these things in a much more granular way," Michelle Bauer, the EDC's chief operating officer, said. "We looked at everything from the labor supply and the specific job functions — where do we have a lot of them? Where do we need to keep building more of them? When we're armed with this information, it helps us make better decisions about how we're going to position our market."

Of note: In all but manufacturing and distribution and logistics, the Tampa area outperformed the Charlotte area, according to Hickey Global. In Hickey Global's models, Charlotte is the only city that appears in all seven target industries. The other competitors varied based on the industry.

Beyond lower wages and a favorable tax environment, the Tampa area counts strong population growth, quality of life and a diverse, multilingual population among its competitive advantages. Among the disadvantages are a lack of economic development incentives, fewer bachelor's and graduate degree holders compared to competitive regions, and long-term pipelines of employees for its targeted industries.

A lack of incentives is a problem for metro areas throughout Florida; lawmakers allowed the state's qualified target industry program to expire in 2020.

Matherly said incentives may not eliminate the Tampa area or any Florida metro from a site selector's first round, but they factor in "at the margins."

"At the end, there are always tradeoffs," he said. "And at that point, incentives do play a role because they help offset some of these discrepancies for communities. Or the incentive could just be like a training program, where the company says, 'We want more of a talent pipeline.'"

Economic development incentives are constantly changing, Matherly said; New Jersey, for example, eliminated its program and then reintroduced a very similar one. In Nashville, Mayor John Cooper has said that he has no desire to recruit businesses with incentives and that "the strategy of paying people to be here is probably antiquated."

But incentives aren't going away anytime soon, Matherly said, though they are evolving. More often, his firm is seeing states and cities offer community asset incentives, like educational programs, to close the deal.

"It's just like infrastructure," he said of the training programs. "Even if the company goes somewhere in a couple of years, you still have water and sewer structure at the site."""

 

[RANYC]

23 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Seems the Charlotte region is the main competitor on all fronts for Tampa St Pete.  According to this study noted in the Tampa Biz Journal we only beat them in manufacturing (which makes sense NC is a manufacturing powerhouse FL not so) and logistics and of course that makes sense too.  I would like to get in the details on the study on the other options.  I will be in Tampa in Jan. and I will be sure to snoop around.   (this all being said I like the I-4 corridor of Florida better than the other major metros south and NE) 

""The Tampa area's red hot real estate market has the potential to change how economic developers market the region to companies looking to create jobs here.

A newly released study commissioned by the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council found that while the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area can still count lower wages and a favorable tax environment among its competitive advantages, a rapidly rising rental and housing market counts as a disadvantage.

Barry Matherly, president and CEO of Hickey Global, the firm that conducted the study, said that one of two things typically happen when a traditionally low-cost area sees its cost of living rise: Either employers pay more and economic developers tout the area's amenities and quality of life, or wages remain low and the labor market becomes constricted.

"With a growing market like this, it's expected that there would be an increase in costs," Matherly told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

New York-based Hickey Global, an economic development consulting firm, used the same spreadsheets its site selection consultants use to evaluate prospective cities to model how the Tampa area stacks up to its typical competitors, like the Charlotte, North Carolina metro area, in terms of its seven target industries (financial and professional services; information technology; life sciences and health care; defense and security; manufacturing; and distribution and logistics).

Site selection consultants are among the most powerful players in economic development deals — particularly for the largest deals that create hundreds of jobs and represent millions of dollars in capital investment. When companies are looking to grow or expand, they engage site selectors, who use formulas to eliminate regions based on their clients' needs and factors like the labor market, talent pipeline, housing inventory, local taxes and more.

"The whole point of us doing this competitiveness study was for us to get our arms around all of these things in a much more granular way," Michelle Bauer, the EDC's chief operating officer, said. "We looked at everything from the labor supply and the specific job functions — where do we have a lot of them? Where do we need to keep building more of them? When we're armed with this information, it helps us make better decisions about how we're going to position our market."

Of note: In all but manufacturing and distribution and logistics, the Tampa area outperformed the Charlotte area, according to Hickey Global. In Hickey Global's models, Charlotte is the only city that appears in all seven target industries. The other competitors varied based on the industry.

Beyond lower wages and a favorable tax environment, the Tampa area counts strong population growth, quality of life and a diverse, multilingual population among its competitive advantages. Among the disadvantages are a lack of economic development incentives, fewer bachelor's and graduate degree holders compared to competitive regions, and long-term pipelines of employees for its targeted industries.

A lack of incentives is a problem for metro areas throughout Florida; lawmakers allowed the state's qualified target industry program to expire in 2020.

Matherly said incentives may not eliminate the Tampa area or any Florida metro from a site selector's first round, but they factor in "at the margins."

"At the end, there are always tradeoffs," he said. "And at that point, incentives do play a role because they help offset some of these discrepancies for communities. Or the incentive could just be like a training program, where the company says, 'We want more of a talent pipeline.'"

Economic development incentives are constantly changing, Matherly said; New Jersey, for example, eliminated its program and then reintroduced a very similar one. In Nashville, Mayor John Cooper has said that he has no desire to recruit businesses with incentives and that "the strategy of paying people to be here is probably antiquated."

But incentives aren't going away anytime soon, Matherly said, though they are evolving. More often, his firm is seeing states and cities offer community asset incentives, like educational programs, to close the deal.

"It's just like infrastructure," he said of the training programs. "Even if the company goes somewhere in a couple of years, you still have water and sewer structure at the site."""

 

Paid for by the Tampa Chamber?  We beat out Tampa for Centene.

https://siteselection.com/issues/2020/sep/north-carolina-how-charlotte-won-centene.cfm

A number of factors helped Charlotte beat out the intense competition for this project, according to Chung and other experts. Among them is the fact that Charlotte keeps attracting a plethora of talented workers. When WhistleOut recently ranked the best cities for millennials for working remotely, Raleigh checked in at No. 3 and Charlotte came in at No. 8.

Nearly 100 people a day move to the Charlotte region, an area of 2.64 million people. According to recent report that ranks the fastest-growing tech talent markets in the country, Charlotte boasts a tech talent pool that is growing twice as fast as the national average.

“They are building about a 1 million-sq.-ft. campus over by UNC Charlotte,” says Chung. “This school has upped its game to be more like a traditional four-year university. Charlotte is on a roll. Centene is the biggest win so far, but it also won the Honeywell headquarters relocation a couple years ago. Lowe’s is adding a couple thousand technology workers in Charlotte, and that will involve a lot of digital technology positions.

“Charlotte has been known for its banking, airport and motorsports, and now the area’s technology talent pool is capable of supporting so much more,” Chung says. “In winning Centene, we beat out Florida and Texas. That says a lot.”

Why am I so bothered when these studies tout Florida's lower wages as a type of competitive advantage.  Low wages perhaps benefit a type of corporate ownership class, but only to a degree.  Also proud to celebrate our region's higher rate of academic achievement and certification.  If we're commanding higher jobs of higher value that happen to materialize in lower numbers than less-skilled roles, then I wouldn't characterize Tampa/FL as "winning." 

It might be interesting to look at a metric  that considers the extent to which job creation is giving X percentage of the population a living wage - based on a basket of essential goods & services.

 Not sure how Tampa does, but I do think Charlotte could do better in fostering small business and venture creation & growth, and engendering a regional ecosystem that supports and celebrates ventures, entrepreneurship, risk-taking and the overall hustle. 

Edited April 27, 2022 by RANYC

[KJHburg]

One of the biggest econ development announcements this year in this region is already under construction.  the new Eli Lilly plant in Concord at the Grounds aka old phillip morris site.  

Hopefully we will attract quite a few pharma plants in the future in this region like the Raleigh Durham.   (and remember the Cabarrus EDC told me their phone is ringing off the hook since this announcement) 

https://www.cabarrusedc.com/lilly-bringing-1-billion-investment-to-cabarrus/

$1 Billion investment! 

 

[TheOneRJ]

[Norm2]

4 minutes ago, TheOneRJ said:

Fascinating. Maybe this will be a slow move away from Ohio?

[KJHburg]

Success breeds more success.  NC wins the Prosperity Cup from Site Selection magazine 2nd year in a row based on last years econ development wins.  Does not count Vinfast or Eli Lilly in Concord which happened this year.

https://siteselection.com/issues/2022/may/2022-prosperity-cup.cfm

[DonkeyKong]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Success breeds more success.  NC wins the Prosperity Cup from Site Selection magazine 2nd year in a row based on last years econ development wins.  Does not count Vinfast or Eli Lilly in Concord which happened this year.

https://siteselection.com/issues/2022/may/2022-prosperity-cup.cfm

Great news!  Hopefully the QC will see some wins soon!  I feel like will all the “spec” office  development there are some things in the pipeline.

[krazeeboi]

On 4/26/2022 at 3:38 PM, KJHburg said:

Seems the Charlotte region is the main competitor on all fronts for Tampa St Pete.  According to this study noted in the Tampa Biz Journal we only beat them in manufacturing (which makes sense NC is a manufacturing powerhouse FL not so) and logistics and of course that makes sense too.  I would like to get in the details on the study on the other options.  I will be in Tampa in Jan. and I will be sure to snoop around.   (this all being said I like the I-4 corridor of Florida better than the other major metros south and NE) 

""The Tampa area's red hot real estate market has the potential to change how economic developers market the region to companies looking to create jobs here.

A newly released study commissioned by the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council found that while the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area can still count lower wages and a favorable tax environment among its competitive advantages, a rapidly rising rental and housing market counts as a disadvantage.

Barry Matherly, president and CEO of Hickey Global, the firm that conducted the study, said that one of two things typically happen when a traditionally low-cost area sees its cost of living rise: Either employers pay more and economic developers tout the area's amenities and quality of life, or wages remain low and the labor market becomes constricted.

"With a growing market like this, it's expected that there would be an increase in costs," Matherly told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

New York-based Hickey Global, an economic development consulting firm, used the same spreadsheets its site selection consultants use to evaluate prospective cities to model how the Tampa area stacks up to its typical competitors, like the Charlotte, North Carolina metro area, in terms of its seven target industries (financial and professional services; information technology; life sciences and health care; defense and security; manufacturing; and distribution and logistics).

Site selection consultants are among the most powerful players in economic development deals — particularly for the largest deals that create hundreds of jobs and represent millions of dollars in capital investment. When companies are looking to grow or expand, they engage site selectors, who use formulas to eliminate regions based on their clients' needs and factors like the labor market, talent pipeline, housing inventory, local taxes and more.

"The whole point of us doing this competitiveness study was for us to get our arms around all of these things in a much more granular way," Michelle Bauer, the EDC's chief operating officer, said. "We looked at everything from the labor supply and the specific job functions — where do we have a lot of them? Where do we need to keep building more of them? When we're armed with this information, it helps us make better decisions about how we're going to position our market."

Of note: In all but manufacturing and distribution and logistics, the Tampa area outperformed the Charlotte area, according to Hickey Global. In Hickey Global's models, Charlotte is the only city that appears in all seven target industries. The other competitors varied based on the industry.

Beyond lower wages and a favorable tax environment, the Tampa area counts strong population growth, quality of life and a diverse, multilingual population among its competitive advantages. Among the disadvantages are a lack of economic development incentives, fewer bachelor's and graduate degree holders compared to competitive regions, and long-term pipelines of employees for its targeted industries.

A lack of incentives is a problem for metro areas throughout Florida; lawmakers allowed the state's qualified target industry program to expire in 2020.

Matherly said incentives may not eliminate the Tampa area or any Florida metro from a site selector's first round, but they factor in "at the margins."

"At the end, there are always tradeoffs," he said. "And at that point, incentives do play a role because they help offset some of these discrepancies for communities. Or the incentive could just be like a training program, where the company says, 'We want more of a talent pipeline.'"

Economic development incentives are constantly changing, Matherly said; New Jersey, for example, eliminated its program and then reintroduced a very similar one. In Nashville, Mayor John Cooper has said that he has no desire to recruit businesses with incentives and that "the strategy of paying people to be here is probably antiquated."

But incentives aren't going away anytime soon, Matherly said, though they are evolving. More often, his firm is seeing states and cities offer community asset incentives, like educational programs, to close the deal.

"It's just like infrastructure," he said of the training programs. "Even if the company goes somewhere in a couple of years, you still have water and sewer structure at the site."""

 

Haven't seen Tampa and Charlotte mentioned so often together since 2012. 

[KJHburg]

Notice most of the job announcements for the Charlotte Region were in the region outside Mecklenburg.   That of course is because Meck is much more office focused and the other counties are more manufacturing and distribution oriented.  But the good news is the region is attracting jobs just not as much to Meck county for now.   However when VaroBank and Silicon Valley Bank are out there and we know they are hiring here it is just a matter of time.  

https://charlotteregion.com/clientuploads/Data/GrowthReport/Q1_2022_GrowthReport.pdf

[KJHburg]

Cabarrus County gets 150 new manufacturing jobs in Concord with packaging company paying above county average wages.

Packaging Manufacturer to Add 150 New Jobs and $27 Million Investment in Cabarrus County - Cabarrus Economic Development (cabarrusedc.com)

[Crucial_Infra]

Hopefully not a sign of things to come for NC’s EV startup

 

 

[kermit]

^ arrival is looking pretty rough as well.

[Windsurfer]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

^ arrival is looking pretty rough as well.

Stock is down, but seem pretty solid in The UK, no?

[Blue_Devil]

2 minutes ago, Windsurfer said:

Stock is down, but seem pretty solid in The UK, no?

Every major Tech or Green IPO during the Pandemic is down 80-90% right now. 

[kermit]

On 5/10/2022 at 7:51 PM, Windsurfer said:

Stock is down, but seem pretty solid in The UK, no?

Product (a bus) seems to be moving through the approvals process and the PR looks good. But the company has delayed the start of production several times and stock price is teetering in delisting territory.  I am not an expert and my judgement was mainly based on announced production delays and  its stock price trajectory. 

Edited May 15, 2022 by kermit

[KJHburg]

NC may win another huge plant this time a electric battery plant in Edgecombe County right outside of Rocky Mount east of Raleigh.  This site was slated for a Chinese tire company called Triangle Tyre however which was announced in 2019.  But nothing has happened and state and local officials wisely put in the contract if you don't build by a certain date we can buy it back from them.  That has not happened but the Chinese company said the local EDC agency could market it.   And now 6 companies are circling the site.

https://wraltechwire.com/2022/05/17/edgecombe-county-courting-electric-car-battery-maker-1000-jobs/

The lesson for the Charlotte metro area?    we need to get on the ball with a megasite somewhere in this region.  I suggest Iredell, Catawba, Lincoln or even Stanly counties.  Or maybe Union too.  Cabarrus with its current sewer issues could still do this as these sites take years to put together.  Otherwise the Toyotas and Vinfast of the world will look elsewhere in NC and that is shame for this region.  

as for this site they need someone who will turn dirt within 12 months or less.   This county lost 1000 jobs when the QVC warehouse burned to the ground and they decided not to rebuild it.

here is more of the back story

https://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/business/triangle-tyre-cancels-project-in-edgecombe-county/article_ce44b54c-d885-55ba-a7f1-207610136b62.html

[rancenc]

Aerial view of Beacon's new development in Pineville, I do believe.

 

[SydneycartonII]

From the Observer’s June 8th edition: 
 

 Midwest salad restaurant chain moves headquarters to Charlotte, eyes expansion plans

[KJHburg]

Here is a Hickory based company moving its Headquarters with a big lease to Atlanta.  How did this not come to Charlotte?

""A global logistics provider headquartered near Charlotte is moving its home base to Dunwoody, after several years of rapid expansion in metro Atlanta.  Transportation Insight LLC, the third largest private company in the Charlotte area and one of its biggest logistics companies, set the stage for the relocation with a series of acquisitions just before the pandemic. During that time, it bought multiple companies in Atlanta's booming logistics sector including Spend Management Experts, Platinum Circle Technologies and Nolan Transportation Group.  Transportation Insight just inked a 174,400-square-foot lease on the third and fourth floors of a new Dunwoody project called Campus 244. The third-party logistics provider is expected to move its existing local workforce of 1,200 into the project by late next year. It could add another 300 employees in Dunwoody, said CEO Ken Beyer.  Transportation Insight has seen its revenue jump from $2.8 billion to $4.3 billion since the end of 2018, according to previous statements from the company. On Wednesday, Beyer told Atlanta Business Chronicle is growing its revenue at 50% per year.  Transportation Insight has been headquartered in Hickory, North Carolina, about an hour north of Charlotte. It will keep an office there.""

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2022/06/22/transportation-insight-relocation.html

[Matthew.Brendan]

ATL GDP is twice that of CLT for starters. but then I'm not an economist so who knows.

[CLT2014]

They already had a large presence of employees in Atlanta. Any time you do a relocation (even from Hickory -> Charlotte), you can lose a lot of talent. Charlotte would be a neutral location that ticks everybody off.... both Atlanta and Hickory employees. Nobody would feel like a winner having to move or have a long commute to Charlotte. With this change... they consolidate the larger Atlanta team in one office, the management team gets to live in a nicer place than Hickory, and people that want to stay in Hickory can stay in Hickory versus move to Charlotte / have a long drive.

[KJHburg]

Just read 9 of their top exec profiles 2 had degrees from  UNC 2 for schools in Georgia and rest all over but mainly in the midwest.  

ATL is the transportation logistics capital of the southeast no doubt but if attracting talent was an issue why not a 2nd HQ in Charlotte which has quite a few global logistics firms as well.

I think Charlotte has been off his its game in the last year but not the state as a whole.  The state of NC is doing great.  Lots of manufacturing announcements around the state including the biggest project in this region is the Eli Lilly plant in Cabarrus county.  I think it could be the complete shakeup and turnover of the econ development staff.  

to prove my point look at the Charlotte Region Business Alliance own 1st QTR 2022 report

https://charlotteregion.com/pages/growth-report/

the biggest job creators are outside Mecklenburg county by a long shot Iredell, Cabarrus , Rowan etc. 

Edited June 22, 2022 by KJHburg

[RANYC]

At a distance, we do appear off our game but I’ve assumed other variables may be at play.  Don’t know enough about how the landscape of effective Econ dev teams are set up.  Just feels the pace of announcements has fallen off dramatically, but then again we did have a pandemic.  Do these Econ dev teams typically get funded and influenced by comm real estate interests alongside politicians?

[KJHburg]

1 hour ago, RANYC said:

At a distance, we do appear off our game but I’ve assumed other variables may be at play.  Don’t know enough about how the landscape of effective Econ dev teams are set up.  Just feels the pace of announcements has fallen off dramatically, but then again we did have a pandemic.  Do these Econ dev teams typically get funded and influenced by comm real estate interests alongside politicians?

we had a complete overhaul of the Charlotte regional business alliance team of econ development and the funding is fairly constant.  The state of NC has been on a roll so the announcements are all around us just not as many in Charlotte.  Most have been in manufacturing which is very strong in the region but new industrial in Meck county is less (there is a lot of existing manufacturing in Meck county but new announcements outside of the Arrival micro plant and some in Huntersville area)  Most of the big new job generating go to the surrounding counties.  I guess what we are missing is the office heavy announcements and that could be indeed because of remote work and other things at play.  

[KJHburg]

another multi BILLION dollar plant maybe coming to NC possibly Randolph county near Asheboro with this $112 M slipped into the state budget.  Last time something like this happened later announced Toyota Battery plant. 

This could be a huge microchip plant.

https://businessnc.com/state-budget-includes-112-5m-incentive-for-4b-project-near-asheboro/

again this points out the fact the Charlotte region needs megasite options.   I hope this happens as Texas has 3 new microchip plants in the works from AMD, Samsung, and Texas Instruments, Ohio has 2 Intel plants.