The Good News Report

[rjp212]

Speculation on the company has made it over to the CBJ.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2014/10/city-council-considering-incentives-for-company.html

[Guest]

So we have a rumored tenant for Office, and two (large scale) rumored tenants for retail. Hopefully one of these comes to fruition.

[CLTProductions]

Speculation on the company has made it over to the CBJ.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2014/10/city-council-considering-incentives-for-company.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2014/10/city-discusses-incentives-for-400-job-expansion-by.html

 

Continuing on with the information. 400 jobs wow....thats great. It says it's a company that already exists here, so I guess its a company with a presence but maybe looking to relocate their HQ here???

 

"an announcement is expected in a matter of weeks" hopefully sooner rather than later.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Jayvee

[15895]

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2014/10/city-discusses-incentives-for-400-job-expansion-by.html

Continuing on with the information. 400 jobs wow....thats great. It says it's a company that already exists here, so I guess its a company with a presence but maybe looking to relocate their HQ here???

"an announcement is expected in a matter of weeks" hopefully sooner rather than later.

Yay, Belks (assuming this is regarding Crescent) Edited October 28, 2014 by AirNostrumMAD

[CLTProductions]

Yay, Belks (assuming this is regarding Crescent)

Yeah that would make a lot of sense! Move them uptown, have a Belk store in the new building.......ah this needs to hurry up and be announced.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Jayvee

[tozmervo]

Is Belk looking to expand that aggressively? I think that would be awesome, but 400 HQ employees seems like an awful big expansion for that company. 

[michaelef]

Belk is over in the office park where the old coliseum used to be.  

[HopHead]

^Yea, I'm not thinking it's Belk based on the 400 jobs. That does seem like a rather large expansion for them... What about Ally Bank moving their HQ here? That's been suggested before in the past. They are an existing company here with a large presence already. 

[atlrvr]

^Yea, I'm not thinking it's Belk based on the 400 jobs. That does seem like a rather large expansion for them... What about Ally Bank moving their HQ here? That's been suggested before in the past. They are an existing company here with a large presence already. 

 

Belk has been pretty aggressive in hiring lately, but I tend to agree that 400 jobs would be a lot, however they could be counting some of the previously announced jobs if they are negotiating a new HQ locations (for instance, they are considering Fort Mill or Charlotte), in which those yet-to-be hired jobs already in the pipeline would get incentives credit.

 

I agree that Ally is a strong possiblity, 1) they continue to grow, 2) Ally Center is out of room for them to expand, 3) they heir-apparant CEO is based in Charlotte...current CEO is in NY, and was always viewed as interim-ish after Al de Molina was ousted.

[tozmervo]

Maybe Cato Corporation? Seems like a huge expansion for them, too. 

[kermit]

Is Belk looking to expand that aggressively? I think that would be awesome, but 400 HQ employees seems like an awful big expansion for that company. 

 

^ Cato just opened new space in York County IRRC.

 

400 employee expansion is not _that_ big if Belk is looking to significantly ramp up its ecommerce (although not all of the 400 will be HQ level folks)

 

A friend of mine is at Ally and she does confirm that 1) space is tight and 2) employment growth is happening. However there appears to be no office gossip about a move or HQ relocation (although I am not sure that would be the type of news to get passed thorough the office)

Edited October 28, 2014 by kermit

[ah59396]

I hope it's Lance and we get a big LANCE sign in uptown.  

[Guest]

Maybe Cato Corporation? Seems like a huge expansion for them, too. 

They are moving to Fort Mill, so it would be up to South Carolina to incentivize them. 

 

Also it says company that already has a presence here, not a company that already has its HQ here, so that would rule out Belk. 

Edited October 28, 2014 by Guest

[Niner National]

I'd be happy if it were Ally. I'd love to see them move their HQ here some day.

 

I'd like to see the city aggressively pursue some of these modern online type banks with no retail store presence. I feel like that is going to be the future of banking and I'd love to get some of them while they're still relatively small.

 

Ally is probably one of the biggest of these, so grabbing their HQ would be a great start. Simple would be another good one to target. They're not huge, but they've been growing rapidly. They were acquired this year by a company in Argentina and Charlotte is a lot more convenient to Argentina than Portland, OR is.

[RaleighHeelsfan]

The article is good news. But all it says is "location of industries or businesses" It does not say anything about retail?? Someone stated two retail spots above. I am confused?

[Madison Parkitect]

I hope it's Lance and we get a big LANCE sign in uptown.  

If that happens can we all agree to tell every visitor it's because we love Lance Stephenson so much?

[15895]

The article is good news. But all it says is "location of industries or businesses" It does not say anything about retail?? Someone stated two retail spots above. I am confused?

The retail anchor tenant for tryon place is a rumored retailer.

The base of tryon place is also rumored to have two large retail stores at the base.

Some people wondered out loud if this incentive was for the anchor of tryon place.

[kermit]

Meanwhile up the road:

 

-rumor- has it that the new owners of the building will produce a product that is well positioned to add to Charlotte's status as an electric energy / smart grid cluster. If initial production is successful, then plans are in place for a much more intensive landuse at the site.

Sorry about the vagueness, but I am much more upbeat about the future prospect of the building than when first announced as a ''combined clean-tech and data-communications' company at the site.

 

The announcement is finally out (I quote myself only because I am so rarely right).

 

A Swiss company will be making utility-scale batteries at the old Phillip Morris facility. The batteries are intended to 'smooth out' power production from spikey renewables. The batteries are huge (40 ft containers -- 18 wheeler sized) and due to weight will require rail shipment (thus the PM site).

 

While some of this is untested I do believe this is a market that is more technologically practical than portable batteries (e.g. cars), has less competition, and dovetails really nicely with our energy cluster. If the hype pans out (6,000 jobs total? No way!) I would say this is a decent industrial reuse of the PM site and has very good growth potential. Another bonus is that most of the components of these batteries will be heavy, this makes it more likely for suppliers to set up shop nearby if the operation proves successful.

 

Some quotes from the CBJ article:

 

 

The company isn't accepting tax credits or grants as incentives for its project, Alevo Chairman and CEO Jostein Eikeland said today. "If we couldn't provide a service that could stand on its own, it wasn't worth it."

 

 

Walsh says the secret of Alevo's process isn't in the manufacturing of batteries but the control modules for the battery systems. Those systems control when the power is discharged from the batteries and at what rates, he says.

"We're not really supplying batteries — we're selling grid services," Walsh says.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/outside_the_loop/2014/10/alevo-battery-plant-at-philip-morris-site-could.html?ana=e_clt_bn_breakingnews&u=jDmEk+CKbYnAvaVfOFOlFGXcGSC&t=1414515119&page=all

 

http://www.charlotte...ml#.VE-3Wsmk12Y

Edited October 28, 2014 by kermit

[Guest]

The retail anchor tenant for tryon place is a rumored retailer.

The base of tryon place is also rumored to have two large retail stores at the base.

Some people wondered out loud if this incentive was for the anchor of tryon place.

There is a german retailer rumored to be taking up a large chunk of space in Tryon Place, with the idea that they would also place a retail store in the base. The company has chosen not to sign a lease at its current location out of state.

 

There is another report from another poster that the Retail Czar is in talks with a Local retailer to have a presence in uptown for the first time since 2009. 

 

Whether any of this happens, remains to be seen.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Guest

[rjp212]

There is a german retailer rumored to be taking up a large chunk of space in Tryon Place, with the idea that they would also place a retail store in the base. The company has chosen not to sign a lease at its current location out of state.

 

There is another report from another poster that the Retail Czar is in talks with a Local retailer to have a presence in uptown for the first time since 2009. 

 

Whether any of this happens, remains to be seen.

 

 

So then it seems like Belk might make a comeback. They closed their small store in Overstreet Mall in 2009.

Edited October 28, 2014 by rjp212

[CLTProductions]

There is a german retailer rumored to be taking up a large chunk of space in Tryon Place, with the idea that they would also place a retail store in the base. The company has chosen not to sign a lease at its current location out of state.

 

There is another report from another poster that the Retail Czar is in talks with a Local retailer to have a presence in uptown for the first time since 2009. 

 

Whether any of this happens, remains to be seen.

I can't wait for this to all explode out there. Anyone else up for a flashy BMW showroom???

[RaleighHeelsfan]

I know the BMW thing is a rumor...but what are the chances this could be true? BMW uptown would be groundbreaking!!!

[DMann]

Does anyone remember that the CEO of US Bank was here last week and talked about growth?

 

Talk from The TopRichard Davis, U.S. Bancorp CEO

Friday, October 17, 2014 at 4:35 PM

Since buying Wachovia’s corporate trust business in 2005, U.S. Bancorp, better known as U.S. Bank, has expanded in Charlotte to about 300 employees. ‘I don’t see any limit on how big we can get,’ said U.S. Bancorp CEO Ric...

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/search_results?q=US+Banccorp&skin=&aff=1100#storylink=cpy

 

My vote is here.

[atlrvr]

^ My thought on US Bank is that its hiring will be slower, and focused around specific needs where those people exist in Charlotte.  I don't foresee them needing to relocate 400 people to Charlotte from Minneapolis for an incentives check.

 

Just my 2 cents...if its financial, I think its Ally, CIT or AIG, all of which could want to relocate large portions of corp jobs here for lower costs/workforce depth. 

 

EDIT:  or Babson/MassMutual, they maybe try to wrangle some incentives to move people here from Springfield as part of their new tower.....these specific incentives could be completely separate from Tryon Place.

[Niner National]

I know the BMW thing is a rumor...but what are the chances this could be true? BMW uptown would be groundbreaking!!!

I'll start by saying I have 0 knowledge about anything related to BMW, but it seems reasonable that they would be interested in Charlotte. We are close to their manufacturing facility in Greenville and have a much lower cost of business than NJ. We have a fair number of German companies already operating here and direct flights to Munich and Frankfurt.

 

All of the same things can also be said about Atlanta though. I think they'll eventually move out of NJ and it seems that Charlotte and Atlanta would be the most logical choices.

 

It would be pretty sweet to have a tower in Uptown with a big BMW logo on it though.