Duke Energy Center - 48 Story Office Tower in Charlotte

[nashbill]

Very nice video. I haven't seen it live, but I think I would like it. Kind of whimsical. All buildings do not have to be so serious. Nice addition to the skyline. Do they light it every night or only special occasions? Growing up in Pittsburgh, many years ago, the Gulf Building,(HQ for Gulf Oil at the time)lit its stepped top for the weather, color signified the weather forcast. Very cool for it's time. I don't know if they still do it.

[nonillogical]

Do they light it every night or only special occasions?

It's lit every night, usually in a purple-ish white, unless there is an event or holiday dictating a different color (green all day on St. Patrick's Day, etc). Then at the top of every hour there is a cycling of color changes that lasts several minutes. Some special occasions get more heavily animated effects, like Bobcats games that get the orange/blue and white shimmers that look like camera flashes.

[HopHead]

On a somewhat related note, Emeril Lagasse was spotted eating at Aria in uptown earlier this week. No word on what he was doing in town, but one has to assume it was related to the restaurant he's expected to open at the Duke Energy Center.

[kermit]

Sounds like Wellscovia will finally move its investment baking operations into the new trading floor in the Duke Energy Center

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/08/03/2502115/wells-fargo-securities-to-occupy.html

[HopHead]

Late Friday, federal regulators finally gave their approval for the Duke/Progress merger. There a few conditions that need to be met but they are minor and likely not to cause any further tie ups. Now the last remaining hurdle is the NC Utilities commission, who from every indication will approve the merger. Charlotte-based Duke Energy will then become the largest utility company in the nation, servicing six states.

[Norm2]

Do any of you guys think that this merger will set a precedent for future energy company mergers? I dont think we will see too many mergers like this.

[atlrvr]

My not-very informed opinion is that mergers were once expected to become common because nuclear plants were expected to come back into vogue, but with the now increased amount of gas fracking making natural gas much cheaper, there is probably less need for major consolidations.

I would bet Duke has its eye on acquiring SCANA in the next 5 years though.

[HopHead]

South Carolina has approved the Duke Energy-Progress merger... The deal is now set to officially close. An official announcement is expected as early as later today: http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/power_city/2012/07/duke-energy-merger-set-to-close-with.html

[Gard]

It looks like the sudden ouster of Johnson has enraged some folks and sparked a review of the decision to allow the merger by the NC Utilities commission. According to news sources, commission has the power to go as far as rescinding their decision at any time, essentially demerging the two. They can also hold additional hearings. S&P has also put Duke on it's "credit watch" list for a potential downgrade.

http://www.wral.com/business/briefs/story/11287622/

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/2012/07/could-duke-energy-progress-merger-be.html

http://www.wral.com/business/briefs/story/11280394/

[HopHead]

^ It will be interesting to see how this pans out, but I doubt you'll see NCUC vote to "undo" the merger. Too much went into getting this merger approved over the last 18 months. Some people will probably get sued, fired, reassigned and/or fined. Possibly some other conditions added (reducing the rate hike maybe?), but that will probably be the extent of it. Obviously something happened over the last 18 months to change the opinion of Johnson running the combined company -- we will find out what. Of course never say never, but undoing the merger would likely have worse consequences for both companies. At least that's my amateur business reporter opinion.

[49er]

After reading some of the newspaper commentary from former Progress board members and employees, the "scandal" involving Johnson's departure seems to be a convenient way to call for undoing the merger and getting Raleigh's headquarters back. I understand the feeling. When Wells Fargo bought Wachovia, I always hoped that something would change and undo the merger. Unfortunately, this is being billed as a Charlotte v Raleigh thing which it totally is not. The reality is, Progress was going to be bought by someone and was not going to remain independent for much longer. The real negative to our state is the job loss related to the merger. People shouldn't be so concerned with who the CEO is.

[kermit]

Obviously something happened over the last 18 months to change the opinion of Johnson running the combined company -- we will find out what.

Progress's management (mismanagement) of repairs at their Crystal River nuclear plant may be one of those things:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/progress-energy-warned-itself-not-to-self-manage-crystal-river-nuclear/1205579

[49er]

“Do we have your word that this area does not need to be concerned about a great sucking sound of jobs leaving?”

It seems that the utilities commission is taking this personally because it affects Raleigh. As a North Carolina citizen and taxpayer, I am annoyed that they are showing apparent concern and favoritism because this deal is unfolding in their backyard. If this was an Asheville or Winston Salem company, would there even be as much uproar?

I also got a kick out of Mr. anti Charlotte, Barry Saunder's article yesterday that said:

"Raleigh takes it personally

If people in the Triangle didn’t like Charlotte before – don’t look at me like I’m the only one – they certainly won’t like them any more after it stole our only Fortune 500 company and then canned its CEO"

Good ol' southern drama at its best!!!

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/07/09/2189259/advice-for-rogers-on-how-to-relate.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/11/3374147/rogers-duke-energy-board-lost.html#storylink=cpy

[HopHead]

Right... the city of Charlotte stole the company and fired it's Raleigh CEO. Why wasn't I summoned to vote? After all, I'm part of the city. I get so tired of hearing that garbage. It's the people on the board, many of whom don't even have a Charlotte address, that vote on these decisions.

[Niner National]

Progress would have been taken over by Dominion if not Duke. It was a poorly run company that made several bad decisions that left it with crippled and aging generation facilities. Progress really needed a merger because it is likely they could not finance the upgrades necessary to their power plants on their own.

[Synopsis101]

Are they still planning on building the condominium tower?

[ah59396]

Considering the current market for condos in uptown, you probably wont see this ^, or any other uptown "condo-skyscraper" built for 5-10 years after Skye's completion.

[HopHead]

^No, the condo is off the table. Though, there were some whispers about putting a hotel there instead within the last year. Haven't heard anything since then. But, I think with Romare Bearden Park and the new Knights stadium starting construction (tentatively after the DNC), you may see some developer want to put an apartment tower in its place. The support base for the building is already there.

[Prodev]

The supports and underground parking are already in place for the tower. Wells Fargo obviously has no risk tolerance to develop the project themselves. They aren't shopping the project, per se, but have listened to proposals on the project. I've heard first hand that they've turned down several hotel concepts b/c they didn't fit what they were looking for, which I interpreted as if it's not a 4-star concept like a W, Four Seasons, Intercontinental, etc. they aren't willing to move forward. They're also considering apartments for the project, but again, it would have to be very high end and cater to the "renter by choice" crowd.

[dubone]

It's good to know that they're keeping a high standard for what goes on top of the Mint, because eventually something at that level will work. I would prefer to see a hotel there rather than an apartment building, and was always surprised there was no hotel component to the original Wachovia complex plans.

[kermit]

This feels like old news but its a big deal nonetheless. The CBJ is reporting that Wells will open a trading floor in the power tower next month. Wells will move its traders from One Wells Fargo into the new trading floor. The WF Securities Markets Divisionis trading operations is led by two locally based executives and Charlotte is the home of 1,500 of 4,000 investment bankers (the largest cluster of WF investment bankers).

The move and new trading floor helps salvage some of Wachovia’s original intentions for the building that was designed and constructed to be the bank’s headquarters. Those plans were derailed when Wachovia nearly failed and was sold at a steep discount to Wells Fargo. Originally, plans for the large, state-of-the-art trading floor were thought to be scrapped. But as Wells began to see the benefits of Wachovia’s capital markets business, the trading floor plans were restored.

http://www.bizjourna...-charlotte.html

Given the size of the trading floor in the Power Tower I suspect that this move pressages a long-term expansion of Well's investment banking activity in Charlotte.

[kermit]

Jim Rodgers continues his descent into villanry:

he said if Duke cannot get proper regulator treatment “we might not be headquartered in North Carolina in the near future.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/bank_notes/2012/11/rogers-weakening-duke-energy-could.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2012-11-13

[Gard]

I was reading that this morning...he stated that another company could buy out Duke, but I would imagine that would be difficult now with the Progress-Duke combination to pass by regulators in its entirety when you consider how much of a hard time they had with the Progress-Duke merger to begin with. I would say that any deal would likely result in spinning/selling off of assets, be it to another existing utility, spinning off Progress/Duke/entirely new company, or a combination of these things. Regardless, it doesn't appear that the government side of this is going to cut them any slack, be it from the utilities commission or Roy Cooper.

[kermit]

Bloomberg has a nice article on the rise of Wells Fargo investment banking unit in Charlotte. It provides some thoughtful appraisals of the industry, the local talent base and the end of BoA local trading activity. The article also features some bizzare quotes when discussing Charlotte's lower costs:

 

"In Charlotte’s Eastover section, long an outpost of the wealthy, an 11,300-square-foot home with nine fireplaces, built on three acres abutting a nature preserve, was listed for $3.45 million in mid-December, according to property website Trulia.com. By comparison, a 10,900-square-foot apartment in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood with a rooftop gym and enough storage for 1,000 wine bottles was listed for $24.5 million."

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-15/wells-fargo-bets-on-charlotte-trading-after-bofa-flees.html

[ah59396]

Wait wait wait...homes in New York City are more expensive than in Charlotte!?!?!

Thanks for the groundbreaking reporting Bloomberg...