The Good News Report

[atlrvr]

I believe that the rezoning is to accomodate the already announced Zenta expansion.

Not a big event, but Bosch is closing a Michigan precision bearing plant and shifting production to Charlotte. Some employeess will be offered relocation to Charlotte.

Also, a new web-based legal discovery firm is opening a Charlotte office. Up to 90 employees will be hired.

[cltbwimob]

I believe that the rezoning is to accomodate the already announced Zenta expansion.

Not a big event, but Bosch is closing a Michigan precision bearing plant and shifting production to Charlotte. Some employeess will be offered relocation to Charlotte.

Also, a new web-based legal discovery firm is opening a Charlotte office. Up to 90 employees will be hired.

Actually according to the bizjournal, it is the Red Cross thats looking for the rezoning so they can add a call center. The center would employ 267 people and could employ an extra 1000 people eventually although they haven't said whether they will expand that much.

[cltbwimob]

Freightliner is recalling some of it's laid off employees...according to the article, it looks like 119 will be coming back to Mt Holly later this month, a total of 225 will be recalled to Mt Holly between April and July, and up to 1000 total workers may be recalled to all three area plants.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/05/10/story12.html?b=1273464000^3312941

[HopHead]

Red Cross will be bringing 440 jobs to a Charlotte call center. This is part of the approved rezoning request by City Council last week. Red Cross is consolidating it's 26 call centers into 3. The other two are located in Omaha, NE and Tuscon, AZ.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/05/24/daily25.html

Edited May 26, 2010 by dbull75

[HopHead]

More good news... South Carolina based, Jo-Mar Spinning will be bringing 100 new textile jobs to a vacant Belmont mill.

[HopHead]

And the good news just keeps coming in! 258 new jobs from Citco Fund Services coming to Charlotte. Average pay just under $80,000/year.

[cltbwimob]

A lot of job announcements in the past week

Red Cross-440

Citco-258

Morgan Stanley-50

Jo-Mar-100

A total of almost 850 jobs. That is not including some other projects that may be in the works such as Reventure Park which is expected to add over 1000 permanent jobs and 800 construction jobs as well as the possibility of a new paper mill coming to Kings Mountain and adding 400 jobs.

Other expansions that could be coming soon...Curtis Wright Controls

Edited June 3, 2010 by cltbwimob

[atlrvr]

Citco is taking space in the Charlotte Plaza building, in space that Wellschovia is vacating. I believe they are taking 2 floors. It's good to see users taking bank space that is shed/consolidated.

Also, Discover Ready is leasing a full floor at the BB&T center. They are expanding beyond their original estimates of 90 employees.

A small money manager Sterling Stamos is opening an office in the Hearst Tower. Charlotte is their third office, after NY and the SF Bay area. I don't know the number of employees, but I think its just a few, at least for now.

US Bank is expanding into Municipal Bond origination and trading business. There is a chance that it will be based in Charlotte, depending on who they hire to lead the group. Regardless, they are expanding their corporate and commercial banking presence in Charlotte.

[49er]

Is it me or does Charlotte have a more diverse group of financial businesses than before the Wachovia/Wells merger? Before, it seemed to be just the two big banks and feeder companies that worked with them.

[phil-king]

Many of you have referenced these statistics, directly or indirectly, at one point or another, but I thought it might be worthwhile to provide a wholesale view of April's net gains and losses. The first column is a comparison between April & March '10 and the second is between April '09 & '10. Keep in mind that at the same time last year most of these industries were shrinking by margins similar, if slightly smaller, than the gains shown here. I am not a labor economist, but I will venture to say that this paints a generally positive picture. What I really like about it though, is that it illustrates how what appear to be drops in a bucket (100 jobs here, 300 there) can sum up to be something significant. If the May numbers are similar, which they may not be given the latest unemployment stats, then by the end of the summer we could see the city finally starting to make a dent in the jobs lost during the financial crisis. These are the MSA numbers I believe.

Change Over-the-Month Employment Industry Change ( 6,100) 0.8%

Leisure & Hospitality 2,800 3.3%

Professional & Business Services 2,100 1.7%

Government 1,000 0.8%

Financial Activities 700 1.0%

Manufacturing 600 0.9%

Other Services 300 1.0%

Trade, Transp. & Utilities 100 0.1%

Information -100 -0.5%

Education & Health Services -1,100 -1.3%

Change Over-the-Year Employment Change

Industry Change (-7,000) -0.9%

Government 2,400 2.0%

Education & Health Services 1,500 1.9%

Trade, Transp. & Utilities 1,500 0.9%

Total Employment 807,700 Leisure & Hospitality 1,300 1.5%

Professional & Business Services 1,300 1.0%

Other Services -200 -0.6%

Information -500 -2.3%

Financial Activities -2,800 -3.9%

Mining, Logging & Construction -300 -0.9%

Manufacturing -3,400 -4.9%

Mining, Logging & Construction -8,100 -18.8

Unemployment 11.1%

Edit (I apologize if the font is a little odd. Forgive me it's my first post)

Edited June 5, 2010 by phil-king

[nashbill]

Clearwater Paper to invest $260 Million in Shelby. Hire 250.

Link

[15895]

Clearwater Paper to invest $260 Million in Shelby. Hire 250.

Link

Is Shelby considered part of the Charlotte region? Regardless, good news for Cleveland County

[HopHead]

Ameritrust is going to add about 80 jobs to the Charlotte area. They will be adding insurance and wealth management divisions: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/06/11/1492050/bank-notes.html

[Urbanity]

I think the below is good news indeed.

Very small employment numbers, but very key (in my mind) type of company announcement. I think it adds to the impetus of Charlotte creating an energy sector economy and it is vital that we continue to attract high tech start-ups. These are the kind of companies we need to attract (lots) more of to have a very vibrant economy and city.

A Virginia smart-grid technology startup has decided put its software development division in Charlotte.

Intelagrid, which announced this week a $1 million round of private equity financing, will start with a five-person office in South End. John Espey, chief operating officer, says the company expects to have as many as 12 employees in Charlotte within two years. Ultimately it plans to have a 20 to 25 people in Charlotte including a sales division.

Charlotte is a great area for software developers,” he says. “The banks, particularly the investment banks, employ a lot of people in software and there is a great pool of talent.”

Read more: Smart-grid startup putting software division in Charlotte - Charlotte Business Journal

[atlrvr]

^ I completely agree. These highly entrepreneurial companies with highly skilled labor are really what drive some of the more interesting cities in the US....Boston, NY, SF, Seattle, etc. A big draw-back has always been the noted lack of financing (Private Equity, Venture Capital) available to Charlotte companies. I'm hoping the upcoming Access to Capital meeting in a few weeks creates a better network, but ultimately, it's companies like Intelagrid prospering and spreading the word to other small companies and financiers that will turn Charlotte into a conducive place for these types of companies to be.

That said, as I reported earlier, Sterling Stamos which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago has begun hiring in Charlotte. Employment could be a dozen or more. Their Charlotte office appears to focus on investing in Private Equity funds.

I also mentioned that US Bank might start a muni bond shop in Charlotte. It appears that they did hire someone several months ago who will lead bond origination from Charlotte. I believe they will be building out an origination team here in Charlotte.

The Ameritrust announcement is a a big positive in that it is expanding their business into wealth and insurance which Charlotte is a medium player in already on the national level. Strenthening the local talent pool, should help Charlotte continue to attract those types of jobs.

TIAA-CREF is starting a retail banking to serve their existing clients. A large majority of those jobs will be in their Charlotte office. It should mean a couple dozen jobs within the next year or so.

Areva has started hiring, which I believe relates to their previous announcement from about 2 years ago. They are a nuclear engineering/construction management firm. Toshiba, Westinghouse, Shaw, and Siemans have also be steadily hiring this year.

Electrolux has begun hiring in earnest as well, and have well over 100 positions listed to be filled locally.

I've really taken a positive view lately that Charlotte, even though has an unemployment rate well above the national average, is going to recover much quicker than most pundits believe. The big positive is the diversity of employers is pretty impressive. Corporate HQ type jobs for a variety of industries, medical device firms, engineering, energy, start-ups, consulting. Even the finance jobs that we are getting are much more diversified, in that they are distributed among many different companies, filling different niches. For all the doom, and gloom about bank jobs, I really believe that Charlotte will emerge in the next 3-5 years as a dominant finance center, as opposed to a dominant bank town.

[HopHead]

^I definitely like (and agree) with your assessment. Charlotte becoming a dominant finance center is much more sound for the city, and region than just being a 2 bank town like we've been for years. It opens the doors for much more job growth and stability. That definitely is the direction we're headed. I wasn't aware that TIAA-CREF had started their own retail banking operation either. I will be curious to see, over the next few months, what else transpires with the growth of companies here and relocations. It seems to me that the Charlotte chamber is still holding a few cards up their sleeves...

Edited June 12, 2010 by dbull75

[Urbanity]

I've really taken a positive view lately that Charlotte, even though has an unemployment rate well above the national average, is going to recover much quicker than most pundits believe. The big positive is the diversity of employers is pretty impressive. Corporate HQ type jobs for a variety of industries, medical device firms, engineering, energy, start-ups, consulting. Even the finance jobs that we are getting are much more diversified, in that they are distributed among many different companies, filling different niches. For all the doom, and gloom about bank jobs, I really believe that Charlotte will emerge in the next 3-5 years as a dominant finance center, as opposed to a dominant bank town.

I'm giving a mother-feffing Amen to that one. I think this has been a hard period for the city but one that has only strengthen it;s resolve to keep going for it. When the city and it's people have the desire a lot can happen!

[krazeeboi]

The same drive that made Charlotte a banking behemoth will now carry it forward to prosperity in the years to come. The banking industry was just a foundation for future growth across a variety of industries.

[HopHead]

Magna Composites will be adding nearly 330 jobs to Charlotte-area plants: http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/06/14/daily1.html. This will occur over 4 years and they will spend about $10 million to expand the facilities to accommodate the growth.

[cltbwimob]

Magna Composites will be adding nearly 330 jobs to Charlotte-area plants: http://charlotte.biz.../14/daily1.html. This will occur over 4 years and they will spend about $10 million to expand the facilities to accommodate the growth.

Unfortunately, 2 of those plants are in Catawba and Caldwell counties which are not a part of the MSA or CSA of Charlotte, they are part of the Unifour MSA. So really, the Charlotte region is only getting just a little over half of those jobs.

The good news is however, is that jobs seem to be making their way back into the Charlotte economy by the hundreds. It seems as if every couple of days lately some company announces intent to hire hundreds of workers. I believe, based on the information posted on this thread and the recent swarm of announcements, that the Charlotte area unemployment rate has peaked and is beginning to decline. Based on current employment info, regional unemployment dropped by approximately 1% in the past month or so to 11.1%. I am somewhat skeptical of that number considering much of the uptick in employment lately can be attributed to census jobs which will go away in the coming months. After the census is over, if the local unemployment rate is still significantly lower than it was prior to the census, then I think we may truly be able to celebrate.

[HopHead]

^That's why I said "Charlotte-area" But to your point, yes a lot of these manufacturing-type jobs are coming back to the area, which is good news for all.

[cltbwimob]

^I definitely like (and agree) with your assessment. Charlotte becoming a dominant finance center is much more sound for the city, and region than just being a 2 bank town like we've been for years. It opens the doors for much more job growth and stability. That definitely is the direction we're headed. I wasn't aware that TIAA-CREF had started their own retail banking operation either. I will be curious to see, over the next few months, what else transpires with the growth of companies here and relocations. It seems to me that the Charlotte chamber is still holding a few cards up their sleeves...

I think something that will help in our quest to become a dominant finance center is our two new bank startups: Union National Bank and Blue Ridge Bank. UNB is seeking $2 billion in capital to buy failed banks and BRB is seeking $ 1 billion. IIRC some of the failed banks are being sold about 5% of their asset value. This leads me to believe that these two banks may very quickly become larger regional banks with multiple state operations and tens of billions in assets (assuming their shelf charters are approved). If Charlotte could just get the TIAA-CREF HQ now, it would definitely be a dominant finance center.

Edited June 14, 2010 by cltbwimob

[HopHead]

WebVisible, a website optimization and online advertising company, will be adding up to 150 jobs in Charlotte within the next 18 months. They are relocating from Ballantyne to an office space over 6x the size in the Forest Park office park.

[cltbwimob]

The Babcock & Wilcox Co. has signed a lease for its new corporate headquarters in Charlotte. The company, which is moving from Lynchburg, Va., is taking 40,000 square feet in the Harris building at Ballantyne Corporate Park and plans to house more than 100 employees there, according to real estate sources.

Read more: More good news for Charlotte on HQ front - Charlotte Business Journal

-This is from an old edition of the bizjournal that I came across a couple of days ago...Originally B&W's plans were for 12 employees, now it looks like the may have as many as 100..

Also Walmart will be adding hiring 350 for it's Indian Land store just across the border from Charlotte.

Finally, NC's unemployment rate dropped to 10.3% hopefully this means that it won't be long before Charlotte's unemployment rate is back to single digits.

Edited June 18, 2010 by cltbwimob

[sammyjoey]

No new updates, but these articles summarize several of the items in this thread

Summary of Chamber's recruiting strategy over the past year:

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/07/12/focus1.html?b=1278907200^3616181

Summary of major financial services industry announcements in the past year:

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/06/14/story5.html