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atlrvr

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Last Tuesday, there was a closed door discussion with Meck Co commissioners for incentives related to relocation and/or expansion. Tonight it's on the Charlotte city council agenda. Hopefully there is something imminently in the works.

Mercedes-Benz is coming to Tryon Place and the hotel on that site will now be a 60 floor convention center hotel :0

Lol, kidding aside, hopefully it's something semi-interesting

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  • 2 weeks later...

File all these under the word "interesting".

 

Toshiba is opening a new energy division whose HQ will be in Charlotte.  I think atlrvr made mention of this a few months ago, but here is an article.  I wonder if long term Toshiba is considering moving the entire Westinghouse HQ to Charlotte.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/energy/2015/01/toshiba-names-ceo-for-new-subsidiary-with-hq.html

 

Grant Thornton just promoted another Charlottean to a powerful post within the company.  The company is technically HQed in Chicago, but now the CEO and CFO are both Charlotteans.

 

http://news.grantthornton.com/news/grant-thornton-names-charlotte-based-billy-moore-cfo

 

Finally, TIAA CREF has just leased 127,000 SF in Ballantyne.  This is in addition to their UC area campus.  While there is no specific mention of job growth, 127K seems like an awful lot of square footage just to have lying around.  Perhaps someone in the know can shed some light on their plans.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2015/01/tiaa-cref-leases-betsill-building-at-ballantyne.html

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I may have posted this before,don't recall, but a friend of mine recently took on a new job with TIAA-CREF a short time ago and it's being put in the new Ballantyne location. He was actually kind of mad about that aspect of it because he recently moved from the Southpark area to NoDa. However, he did mention the new location was for anticipated growth for the company. He didn't know the exact numbers but seemed to think they will be ramping up hiring down in Ballantyne a good amount while still adding to their presence in UCity. So look for their local employment numbers to keep going on up... 

Edited by wend28
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I may have posted this before,don't recall, but a friend of mine recently took on a new job with TIAA-CREF a short time ago and it's being put in the new Ballantyne location. He was actually kind of mad about that aspect of it because he recently moved from the Southpark area to NoDa. However, he did mention the new location was for anticipated growth for the company. He didn't know the exact numbers but seemed to think they will be ramping up hiring down in Ballantyne a good amount while still adding to their presence in UCity. So look for their local employment numbers to keep going on up... 

What kind of job did your friend take? CREF has had hundreds of technology related postings up on their website over the last year. I wonder what business unit(s) are moving down there. 

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Sandy Springs is so far from ATL, hence I understand the need to be close to the MARTA line as redundancy to get there in case of Snowmageddon II and rush hour bottlenecks.  Atlanta will eventually need a second airport to serve the northern suburbs IMHO.

 

Would be nice to see BMW's headquarters in York or Lancaster county-- SC would roll out the red carpet to get them.  It's close to CLT and a straight shot to Greer, plus close to suppliers like Continental already have their US HQ there.

 

Sandy Springs is "so far from ATL"? LOL, not at all; it's just a stone's throw from Buckhead but traffic gets pretty ridiculous in the Perimeter area during rush hour so locating near MARTA is smart. And I agree with you concerning a potential BMW corporate headquarters in Fort Mill or Indian Land. If that were to happen, it shouldn't be viewed as SC one-upping Charlotte given SC's extensive existing ties with BMW and already being home to their NA manufacturing headquarters.

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Movement Mortgage, LLC, one of the fastest growing mortgage lenders in the country, is establishing national headquarters in Lancaster County. The company is investing $22 million to build its brand new headquarters, creating more than 650 new jobs. The company’s Lancaster County headquarters will be constructed in the Bailes Ridge Business Park on S.C. Highway 160. With the acquisition of 24 acres and construction of a new 104,000 square-foot headquarter building; Movement Mortgage will consolidate several offices. Construction of the headquarters is expected to be completed in March 2016.

 

Schaeffler Group USA, A German-based supplier to the automotive, industrial, and aerospace industries, is investing $68 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Fort Mill, S.C., creating an expected 112 new jobs.

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Re: Google Fiber

Tnx to /r/Charlotte, found this map of proposed fiber huts: http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/Newsroom/Documents/GoogleFiber/Google%20Fiber%20Hut%20Locations.pdf

 

Learned what is a mildly interesting tidbit. Apparently there is an old landfill off Atando Avenue near Statesville Ave (location 9). I'm not sure if it's a shuttered municipal landfill or what, but I had wondered in the past why there was such a large undeveloped track at that location. 

 

edit: it's identified on the "applied innovation corridor" masterplan http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/charlottefuture/CIP/Documents/6_Applied%20Innovation%20Corridor.pdf#search=statesville%20ave%20landfill

Edited by tozmervo
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FYI, Google Fiber Huts usually have a radius of about five miles, so it looks like my area is covered. It's interesting that there is a lack of potential sites in South Charlotte near Ballantyne.

 

So if these huts have about a 5 mile radius, then it's plausible that South Carolina wouldn't be able to benefit from Google Fiber. Perhaps that was some of the rationale behind Charlotte's plan? Most of the huts are within 485. Guess Nikki Haley won't be able to sell that when she's trying to poach companies from just over the border. 

Edited by wend28
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It really looks like they are missing a huge swath of highly populated/high income areas.

 

From what I can tell, the areas south of 51 and east of Rea road will not have access. How are they missing a hut area around the Arboretum to serve the middle of south Charlotte? That is a huge chuck of higher income homes that wont have access.  No Stonecrest, no Piper Glen, no Arboretum, no Providence Plantation, no Blakeney. These seem like the exact types of homes that would have the disposable income for google fiber. 

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It really looks like they are missing a huge swath of highly populated/high income areas.

 

From what I can tell, the areas south of 51 and east of Rea road will not have access. How are they missing a hut area around the Arboretum to serve the middle of south Charlotte? That is a huge chuck of higher income homes that wont have access.  No Stonecrest, no Piper Glen, no Arboretum, no Providence Plantation, no Blakeney. These seem like the exact types of homes that would have the disposable income for google fiber. 

 

Disposable income is not a prerequisite for Google Fiber any more than HD cable via Uverse, TWC, or satellite.  Basic internet is FREE, Gigabit service is $70/mo and Gigabit service + TV is $120...so it is actually cheaper than the previously mentioned services...in fact MUCH cheaper when you compare download speeds.

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It really looks like they are missing a huge swath of highly populated/high income areas.

 

From what I can tell, the areas south of 51 and east of Rea road will not have access. How are they missing a hut area around the Arboretum to serve the middle of south Charlotte? That is a huge chuck of higher income homes that wont have access.  No Stonecrest, no Piper Glen, no Arboretum, no Providence Plantation, no Blakeney. These seem like the exact types of homes that would have the disposable income for google fiber. 

 

There are some city owned property in that area they could use for Google Huts, like fire stations. Also, as someone else pointed out, Google can always purchase or lease private property. I doubt Google is going to overlook a huge market and employment center like Ballantyne.

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