The Good News Report

[HopHead]

^Something that wasn't mentioned is the fact that the AVERAGE salary for a majority of the jobs will over $100,000/year. Now that's nice!

[ScottCLT]

^Something that wasn't mentioned is the fact that the AVERAGE salary for a majority of the jobs will over $100,000/year. Now that's nice!

I heard on the news that the average was actually over $200,000! That blew my mind. I may have heard it wrong, though. Can't find that in print anywhere.

[Norm2]

Perinatal Comfort Care is moving their HQ from SC to Charlotte. Article is below.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/31/3325173/perinatal-comfortcare-national.html

[kermit]

CBJ had posted an article on PNC Bank and their recent arrival in the area. The CEO said:

Rohr said the bank is focused on building larger corporate-banking and wealth-management operations onto the RBC platform.

“We’re hiring a number of people locally to fill those positions and moving people into those roles from Pittsburgh,” Rohr said in response to a question about the bank’s growing presence in Charlotte.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/bank_notes/2012/06/pnc-chief-jim-rohr-charlotte-fits.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2012-06-19&page=all

While its not yet tangible its always good to hear about new local opportunties for our banking talent.

The Chamber has announced an "economic development press conference presented by the sttae of North Carolina" tomorrow at 11:30 at the Davidson Town Hall.

[kermit]

MSC Industrial will 'co-locate' its headquarters in Davidson at Harbor Place. They will build 180,000 sqft and hire 400.

http://charlottechamber.com/clientuploads/Economic_pdfs/Announcements/Gov_Release_MSC.pdf

[atlrvr]

Impressive...they're a really big company (in the Fortune 1000)....about 20% bigger than Snyder's Lance.

[Skyline49er]

Here is a quick rundown of the economic development in Charlotte for the past month:

Time Warner Cable- hiring 100 in its Ballantyne office.

Quicken Mortgage-hiring 75.

Quicken Loans-hiring 50.

United Technologies-hiring 325 over 5 years and creating a HQ for its aerospace systems business.

Perinatal Comfort Care-moving HQ here from SC.

Vermop (which is a German janitorial company) is putting its US HQ here.

MSC Industrial-hiring 400 by end of 2017 and putting a co-HQ

[kermit]

Davidson seems like an odd choice for an HQ office. Relatively poor access to downtown, expensive space and limited expansion opportunities. I would have thought that an industrial supply company would prefer an airport or perhaps btyne location. I am not knocking the decision (I would choose Davidson over btyne), I just don't understand the rationale. Does anyone have any insight on how MSC made this neighborhood choice?

[ajfunder]

Norfolk Southern O-Line access and Red Line commuter rail, could that affect their decision?

[rooster8]

I'm guessing the prominent spot on I-77 and lake frontage were major selling points.

[lewy2000]

FYI Charlotte now has two of the top 25 industrial distributors: MSC Direct and Industrial Distribution Group (IDG), the ladder located in Belmont.

Source: http://www.mdm.com/2011_industrial_mdm-market-leaders

[abttown]

Perfect topic for this little gem. Krispy Kreme will be opening three new stores in the Charlotte area by the end of next year. There could be as many as 150 new jobs created by the store openings.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/06/05/3336066/krispy-kreme-is-hot-stuff-once.html

[kermit]

Chamber announcement dujour:

LPL Financial LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings, Inc. (LPLA) and the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer,* announced today that it will add 75 to 100 technology jobs in Charlotte by the end of 2013 with plans for additional growth in the coming years. The company will initially hire for 50 positions by late fall and an additional 25 to 50 positions in 2013.

They are on both Coliseum Centre and Parkway Plaza

[kermit]

Chamber announcement dujour:

3F GmbH, a leading German manufacturer of adhesive tapes, coatings and laminatings, plans to set up its first U.S. production facility in western Mecklenburg County. 3F North America, Inc. recently purchased the former Fleissner building at 12301 Moores Chapel Road, a 65,334 square foot facility

Its certainly good to have another mid-tech manufacturer (particularly one that enhances our German linkages) these facilities don't often yield high levels of employment:

3F North America expects to create five jobs in the current year and to hire at least another five workers in 2013. The company will invest $3 million this year in machinery, equipment and building upgrades.

[rancenc]

Ran across this article today in the Daily-Independent newspaper. Let's see if it comes to fruition with the TX based company...

http://www2.independenttribune.com/news/2012/jul/05/nanotech-firm-new-bidder-old-bethel-school-ar-2410405/

[Niner National]

Not sure if this is good news or bad news, but Shaw Group was purchased for $3 billion dollars today.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/30/3416507/chicago-bridge-iron-to-buy-shaw.html

Definitely good news for stock holders today as the Shaw stock is up ~55%.

[aceboogie]

I was wondering the same about the Shaw group myself. I hope it turns out well.

[HopHead]

Per the Charlotte Biz Journal, the Shaw merger with CBI may actually affect the local operations in a positive way. Possibly adding to the growth: http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/power_city/2012/07/shaw-exec-sees-positives-for-charlotte.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[kermit]

At the risk of schadenfreude (I probably should not have posted this in this thread) Atlanta voters resoundingly defeated their transportation improvement sales tax referendum. Its hard to imagine that this defeat won't make Charlotte a relatively more attractive destination for firms and workers that care about transport infrastructure.

IMO our competition just got weaker, but we will need some considerable luck to avoid slowly falling into the same trap of infrastructure neglect (north line, streetcar extension, BLE, Gateway station.....)

Edited August 1, 2012 by kermit

[Skyline49er]

There's a good article in today's O about S&D Coffee and it's aspirations of becoming a billion dollar company. Article also mentions they are looking at building a 200,000 sf plant, that could employ 200 people, hopefully in Cabarrus County.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/08/01/3420161/sd-coffee-brims-with-growth-expansion.html

[southslider]

At the risk of schadenfreude (I probably should not have posted this in this thread) Atlanta voters resoundingly defeated their transportation improvement sales tax referendum.

Given the recent impasse on a Capital Investment Plan for the City of Charlotte, I definitely wouldn't gloat too much. However, I do wonder, if a sales tax for roads only (Mecklenburg already has one for transit) would be more popular than a property tax increase akin to the failed CIP discussions. York County to our immediate south has already passed its "Pennies for Progress" twice now, including a more recent, post-recession vote.

Edited August 1, 2012 by southslider

[kermit]

^ You are right, and I didn't intend to suggest that the result of the referendum would have been diferent in Charlotte. However, the defeat of TSPLOST in Atlanta was a very public renounciation of infrastructure funding. Since the Charlotte CIP defeat was within the council, it was (I think) much less visible to potential future residents (e.g. folks from outside of town).

Edited August 1, 2012 by kermit

[ah59396]

^I'm actually in Atlanta for the week and was amazed to see the amount of commercials there were for www.untieatlanta.com which was part of the "vote yes" crowd for TSPLOST.

With that said, I reviewed the plan and my understanding is there were many "transit minded" individuals who did not favor this plan; not because of the money but rather because they felt it was a poor application of the funds.

[krazeeboi]

I voted in favor of the plan, but I can understand why it didn't pass (not enough transit for the pro-transit crowd, too many counties/interests involved, etc.). I do agree that it makes the regional competition (i.e., Charlotte) more attractive for economic investment, at least in the short run.

[ah59396]

http://www.bizjourna...adquarters.html

More manufacturing jobs is always a good thing. Especially in Cleveland County!

Also want to add: another German company finding it's way into the Metrolina.

Edited August 13, 2012 by ah59396