The Good News Report

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, HopHead said:

Charlotte landing the Lowe's tech center would be yuge... And go a long way towards diversifying the economy, adding even more employment uptown or Southend and getting some very attractive tech jobs. 

I think you misspelled "Charlotte landing a Fortune 50 HQ relocation AND a 2,000 Job tech center"  

[Rufus]

5 hours ago, atlrvr said:

Charlotte gaining a Fortune 1000 company (#628 to be precise) with relocation of Dentsply Sirona from suburban Philly to Ballantyne.

This follows on their announced job expansion with help of state incentives last year.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/05/23/1841389/0/en/Dentsply-Sirona-Board-Approves-Relocation-of-Headquarters-to-Charlotte-N-C-and-Announces-CFO-Transition-Plan.html

http://fortune.com/fortune500/dentsply-sirona/

 

This is huge news for the city as it diversifies its economy. Charlotte is really killing it lately on corporate relocations lately. 

[KJHburg]

Lets not get ahead of ourselves on this Lowes Tech center with 2000 employees while I think CLT is the best place and due to the location of the HQ in Mooresville  but Dallas is strong competition.

Remember current Lowes CEO was CEO of JCPenney in Plano suburban Dallas so he is very familiar with that market in terms of  tech capabilities.   We need to win this!  And yes LoSo or Southend is prefect for this or a Portman or the Superica Childress Klein tower   but we NEED to win this first.  

From the Dallas Business Journal

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2019/05/23/lowes-dallas-tech-hub.html

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Lets not get ahead of ourselves on this Lowes Tech center with 2000 employees while I think CLT is the best place and due to the location of the HQ in Mooresville  but Dallas is strong competition.

Remember current Lowes CEO was CEO of JCPenney in Plano suburban Dallas so he is very familiar with that market in terms of  tech capabilities.   We need to win this!  And yes LoSo or Southend is prefect for this or a Portman or the Superica Childress Klein tower   but we NEED to win this first.  

From the Dallas Business Journal

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2019/05/23/lowes-dallas-tech-hub.html

Dallas is smack dab in the middle of the country, but this isn't a distribution center. 

This is Charlotte's to lose. Dallas is just in the running to leverage for incentives.

[KJHburg]

Just now, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Dallas is smack dab in the middle of the country, but this isn't a distribution center. 

This is Charlotte's to lose. Dallas is just in the running to leverage for incentives.

I agree but the tech community in Dallas is HUGE  I don't want anybody thinking this is ours for sure.  Especially at the regional partnership.   I know the execs overseeing big tech initiatives are all in Charlotte area and makes total sense to move this here.  Just Home Depot has all their tech people in Atlanta. 

[urbanlover568]

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Lets not get ahead of ourselves on this Lowes Tech center with 2000 employees while I think CLT is the best place and due to the location of the HQ in Mooresville  but Dallas is strong competition.

Remember current Lowes CEO was CEO of JCPenney in Plano suburban Dallas so he is very familiar with that market in terms of  tech capabilities.   We need to win this!  And yes LoSo or Southend is prefect for this or a Portman or the Superica Childress Klein tower   but we NEED to win this first.  

From the Dallas Business Journal

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2019/05/23/lowes-dallas-tech-hub.html

They have several more buildings in their Mooresville HQ projected in their master plan. They must be fishing for incentives before picking the obvious. 

[cltbwimob]

On 5/23/2019 at 9:32 PM, mpretori said:

They have several more buildings in their Mooresville HQ projected in their master plan. They must be fishing for incentives before picking the obvious. 

 

On 5/23/2019 at 6:19 PM, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Dallas is smack dab in the middle of the country, but this isn't a distribution center. 

This is Charlotte's to lose. Dallas is just in the running to leverage for incentives.

While I’d like to be able to agree wholeheartedly with these sentiments, I am with KJ on this.  The economic development community in and around Charlotte needs to go full force on this one. This will be huge if we land it and will go a long way toward diversifying our workforce and continuing our trajectory as a burgeoning tech hub.  It will top a pretty successful streak of economic development expansion and relocation announcements, but we must not rest on our laurels simply because the HQ is 25 miles from downtown Charlotte.  The state of Texas and Dallas are economic development juggernauts and will be stiff competition.  The last time we had something purportedly so assured that it was ours to lose-Alliance Bernstein-we did lose it to Nashville.  I don’t want the same thing to happen again, and I hope no one in a position of power or influence is taking this potential tech hub announcement for granted.

[urbanlover568]

8 hours ago, cltbwimob said:

 

While I’d like to be able to agree wholeheartedly with these sentiments, I am with KJ on this.  The economic development community in and around Charlotte needs to go full force on this one. This will be huge if we land it and will go a long way toward diversifying our workforce and continuing our trajectory as a burgeoning tech hub.  It will top a pretty successful streak of economic development expansion and relocation announcements, but we must not rest on our laurels simply because the HQ is 25 miles from downtown Charlotte.  The state of Texas and Dallas are economic development juggernauts and will be stiff competition.  The last time we had something purportedly so assured that it was ours to lose-Alliance Bernstein-we did lose it to Nashville.  I don’t want the same thing to happen again, and I hope no one in a position of power or influence is taking this potential tech hub announcement for granted.

Even if it's in Iredell County, it's not like Mecklenburg won't get some rewards. People will live in Huntersville too. Lowes has a ton of land and langtree is coming up FAST. Can't see them anywhere else when the original IT office was in the mooresville office before they outsourced most of it to India.  They already moved from Wilkesboro. Can't see them moving or getting a third location. 

[cltbwimob]

19 minutes ago, mpretori said:

Even if it's in Iredell County, it's not like Mecklenburg won't get some rewards. People will live in Huntersville too. Lowes has a ton of land and langtree is coming up FAST. Can't see them anywhere else when the original IT office was in the mooresville office before they outsourced most of it to India.  They already moved from Wilkesboro. Can't see them moving or getting a third location. 

Oh don’t get me wrong-I’d be fine with the tech hub ending up in Mooresville.  While I’d rather it be in Charlotte, I’m happy for new job announcements regardless of where they end up as long as they are in the Charlotte metro area (with of course the notable exception being the companies that  get sucked into the South Carolina poaching machine and uproot from Charlotte only to land a few miles south of the state line).  What I don’t want to see is this 2000 employee tech hub land in the DFW area.  I wouldn’t be concerned about our prospects if this were just about any other area, but DFW is tough competition for Charlotte, and I hope our economic development professionals aren’t  hanging their entire pitch to Lowes on the fact that our metro currently hosts the corporate HQ.

[urbanlover568]

16 minutes ago, cltbwimob said:

Oh don’t get me wrong-I’d be fine with the tech hub ending up in Mooresville.  While I’d rather it be in Charlotte, I’m happy for new job announcements regardless of where they end up as long as they are in the Charlotte metro area (with of course the notable exception being the companies that  get sucked into the South Carolina poaching machine and uproot from Charlotte only to land a few miles south of the state line).  What I don’t want to see is this 2000 employee tech hub land in the DFW area.  I wouldn’t be concerned about our prospects if this were just about any other area, but DFW is tough competition for Charlotte, and I hope our economic development professionals aren’t  hanging their entire pitch to Lowes on the fact that our metro currently hosts the corporate HQ.

I agree for sure.

[KJHburg]

Since Lowes is looking for 200,000 sq ft of office space for this tech hub they would have to build in both Charlotte or Mooresville as they don't have that much empty space anywhere around.  Likely they would have to build in Dallas as well.  The most important thing at this point is to win for this for the Charlotte region then we can find them space as there are many attractive options both uptown and Southend but more in Southend.   I think they want an intown office to attract young tech workers and Mooresville might not do that as much.  (remember I love Mooresville one of my favorite suburban towns)   But first lets get this to Charlotte as the current CEO was CEO of JCPenney in suburban Plano in what they call the Silicon Plains of Dallas.   He knows Dallas and its tech community.   according to reports should be decided by summer and immediate hiring will start. 

[jednc]

Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, Silicon Prairie - I say we coin our own tech nickname here in Charlotte. If we could make these buildings in South Park the epicenter of our tech hub, maybe we could call ourselves "Silicon Breast"? (I know...silicon, silicone)...Sorry for the juvenile joke.

 

[videtur quam contuor]

I had a friend from college who was from Japan. He spoke English with that distinctive Japanese accent and style. He told me about a new company that was located in Citycombahdy. I said WHAT? He repeated several times until I realized he meant Silicon Valley. Murderous for a native Japanese speaker.

[kermit]

Silicon Money?

[wilmore]

6 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Since Lowes is looking for 200,000 sq ft of office space for this tech hub they would have to build in both Charlotte or Mooresville as they don't have that much empty space anywhere around.  Likely they would have to build in Dallas as well.  The most important thing at this point is to win for this for the Charlotte region then we can find them space as there are many attractive options both uptown and Southend but more in Southend.   I think they want an intown office to attract young tech workers and Mooresville might not do that as much.  (remember I love Mooresville one of my favorite suburban towns)   But first lets get this to Charlotte as the current CEO was CEO of JCPenney in suburban Plano in what they call the Silicon Plains of Dallas.   He knows Dallas and its tech community.   according to reports should be decided by summer and immediate hiring will start. 

I can't imagine this going in Mooresville - the in-town office would be way more attractive to tech workers; if they were looking to work at Lowe's in Mooresville, they could already do so. But that's a terrible commute for anyone in the city. 

[kermit]

Cmon guys, we have been all over the Lowe’s story already. There are a handful of Southend office projects that have expanded or appear to have a large tenant, the CEO lives in South Charlotte, they are having trouble recruiting to Moresville,  and a handful of other soft indications that Lowe’s has already selected their space for the tech center. Dallas is just a stalking horse to milk more incentives out of N.C. 

As long as NCEDA (or whatever they are called) do their jobs this is done. My money is on Scaleybark / Beacon.

Edited May 28, 2019 by kermit

[urbanlover568]

3 hours ago, wilmore said:

I can't imagine this going in Mooresville - the in-town office would be way more attractive to tech workers; if they were looking to work at Lowe's in Mooresville, they could already do so. But that's a terrible commute for anyone in the city. 

Considering their campus master plans doubles their current building size I think it's in their interest to keep their workers there. Why would the  the remaining IT center be relocated from Mooresville? Makes zero sense to me. The office culture there is very togetherness. I can't see the IT department breaking.  This is why Langtree is building like crazy now.  

[joenc]

Lowes needs to move away from off-the-shelf IT based thinking and to engineering solutions that can help them compete. Their backend systems are a garbage-fire, they need to redo the whole thing.

Sometimes, you need to have the new team operate from a different place so they don't get infected with the outdated mindset that rules the day now.

Edited May 29, 2019 by joenc

[Guest]

Lowes needs to move away from off-the-shelf IT based thinking and to engineering solutions that can help them compete. Their backend systems are a garbage-fire, they need to redo the whole thing.
Sometimes, you need to have the new team operate from a different place so they don't get infected with the outdated mindset that rules the day now.

And who gets recruited to Mooresville.


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[SouthEndCLT811]

14 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

And who gets recruited to Mooresville.


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This is more of the advantage I see tapping into talent that does not want to commute to Mooresville.  I saw something similar for a client in 30 miles west of Nashville.  They moved their IT department to offices in the Germantown area for several reasons but the one I heard constantly mentioned was recruiting.

Edited May 29, 2019 by SouthEndCLT811

[urbanlover568]

 

1 hour ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

And who gets recruited to Mooresville.


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People who enjoy Davidson and Low Taxed Iredell county  There might be a reason Lowes chose Mooresville and didn't go over the lake to Charlotte. 

[U_R_]

23 hours ago, jednc said:

Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, Silicon Prairie - I say we coin our own tech nickname here in Charlotte. If we could make these buildings in South Park the epicenter of our tech hub, maybe we could call ourselves "Silicon Breast"? (I know...silicon, silicone)...Sorry for the juvenile joke.

 

I was at least always under the impression  that South Park always had a good tech scene.

[tozmervo]

On 5/28/2019 at 10:13 AM, jednc said:

Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, Silicon Prairie - I say we coin our own tech nickname here in Charlotte. If we could make these buildings in South Park the epicenter of our tech hub, maybe we could call ourselves "Silicon Breast"? (I know...silicon, silicone)...Sorry for the juvenile joke.

Queen Charlotte has plenty of transplants, but did you know about her implants?

[wilmore]

17 hours ago, mpretori said:

 

People who enjoy Davidson and Low Taxed Iredell county  There might be a reason Lowes chose Mooresville and didn't go over the lake to Charlotte. 

Isn't at least part of the reason that they were moving from Wilkesboro and many people were commuting from there initially? 

[kermit]

21 minutes ago, wilmore said:

Isn't at least part of the reason that they were moving from Wilkesboro and many people were commuting from there initially? 

This. ( plus the move was 15 (?) years ago, no one really knew if 'the urban thing' was just a fad or not)

How much worse is traffic on 77 in North Meck now than it was in 2003?