The Bad News Report

[videtur quam contuor]

Say, anybody here know what the Trump University syllabus says about this issue in real estate investing? (I will go under my desk now)

[sclark]

1 hour ago, tarhoosier said:

Say, anybody here know what the Trump University syllabus says about this issue in real estate investing? (I will go under my desk now)

Leverage!! 

[urbanlover568]

Really sucks how people are now having to do 2 projects where before they only worked on 1. 

Bank of America cuts more Charlotte tech jobs

[HopHead]

^30 IT jobs cut now that will be hired with cheaper labor or outsourced before long. As an IT professional myself, BofA is one of the last companies in town I'd work for. At least as a FTE.

[urbanlover568]

13 minutes ago, HopHead said:

^30 IT jobs cut now that will be hired with cheaper labor or outsourced before long. As an IT professional myself, BofA is one of the last companies in town I'd work for. At least as a FTE.

Yup, spoke with a PM for BoA. If you want a IT job there, you should pack your bags and go to India. 

[Nick2]

I know they're still cheaper but I though I read about a trend for them to stay domestic these past two years or so. Or is this just BOA specifically?

Are they still shifting abroad?

Edited August 24, 2016 by Nick2

[nashbill]

I have found no other appropriate thread for this.  If one has already started please move this.  Lately Charlotte has been experiencing a lot of bad press.  I don't see anywhere, anyone talking about Wells Fargo.  Over 5000 people fired.  2,000,000 phony credit card accounts.  Ripping off customers that didn't even know they had them.  CEO Stumpf and his minions need to be thrown in jail.  He stands to get over $100,000,000 if he walks.  This is outrageous.  Didn't anybody learn anything from the Great Recession.  Could this cause the collapse of another huge bank or will the tax payers bail out another bank to big to collapse?  Will any of this affect Charlotte? Banks are hated just a little less than cable companies.  $35.00 charge for forgetting to pay my mortgage payment one month out of 15 years.  Screw 'em.

[CLTProductions]

7 hours ago, nashbill said:

I have found no other appropriate thread for this.  If one has already started please move this.  Lately Charlotte has been experiencing a lot of bad press.  I don't see anywhere, anyone talking about Wells Fargo.  Over 5000 people fired.  2,000,000 phony credit card accounts.  Ripping off customers that didn't even know they had them.  CEO Stumpf and his minions need to be thrown in jail.  He stands to get over $100,000,000 if he walks.  This is outrageous.  Didn't anybody learn anything from the Great Recession.  Could this cause the collapse of another huge bank or will the tax payers bail out another bank to big to collapse?  Will any of this affect Charlotte? Banks are hated just a little less than cable companies.  $35.00 charge for forgetting to pay my mortgage payment one month out of 15 years.  Screw 'em.

Over a 3-month period their stock isn't even down, it's continuing to dip, but it has hardly shaken their core. Investors don't care about this kind of corruption and poor judgement/morals. This will have no long term consequences. Not a chance in hell there will a collapse or bail out. Not even close. 

Edited September 27, 2016 by Jayvee

[CLT2014]

41 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

Over a 3-month period their stock isn't even down, it's continuing to dip, but it has hardly shaken their core. Investors don't care about this kind of corruption and poor judgement/morals. This will have no long term consequences. Not a chance in hell there will a collapse or bail out. Not even close. 

Yeah the government's fine is peanuts. $185 million for a company that generated $22.3 BILLION in profit in 2015.... the fine is less than 1% of their profit last year. This is just a line item expense and while they will get a sales hit, they will end up rebounding just fine without any collapse or bail out. Bank of America got a $16.6 BILLION dollar fine and they are still standing today. Now whether Wells Fargo is going to have a good reputation going forward.... that's a whole other story.

Edited September 27, 2016 by CLT2014

[cjd5050]

14 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

Yeah the government's fine is peanuts. $185 million for a company that generated $22.3 BILLION in profit in 2015.... the fine is less than 1% of their profit last year. This is just a line item expense and while they will get a sales hit, they will end up rebounding just fine without any collapse or bail out. Bank of America got a $16.6 BILLION dollar fine and they are still standing today. Now whether Wells Fargo is going to have a good reputation going forward.... that's a whole other story.

No idea how this will play out but former fired employees who were fired or demoted after refusing to open fake accounts have filed a class action suit seeking $7.2 billion.  

I think the issue with being able to withstand this is there is a difference between BofA / WF shareholders and customers.  Most customers will not really feel any impact on the fines.  All they care about is how many ATMs there are and where to send their mortgage payment.  

[Nick2]

Charter Communications (aka time warner) is laying off 255 employees in Charlotte. Most of which are going to be senior accountants. 

However it should be noted that the accountant job market is Charlotte is VERY strong with a VERY high demand and Charter has also offered for employees receiving layoffs to relocate to other Charter locations. Layoffs suck but I feel like there are good opportunities for these people to remain in the Charlotte area and find work. In fact, if I remember correctly, Charlotte has a huge need for experienced accountants (I'll try to find that article later) with 20+ years under their belts.

A couple hundred isn't too major out of a pool of well over 10,000 employees in the industry in the Charlotte area but still a pretty major layoff and really bad news nonetheless. 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article108159442.html

[Guest]

I've dropped some hints to the right people, but I wouldn't doubt it if this went unreported in the media.

Thanks to HB2, Charlotte just missed out on a 730 person office for CoStar at 615 South College. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2016/10/24/d-c-…

[J-Rob]

Say it ain't so.  That is rough.  I wish some of these companies would just delay a decision by a couple of months to see how the election pans out.

[kermit]

^hurts more than Paypal.

At the risk of belaboring the point, the NCGOP clearly want me to be poor (HB2 has certainly reduced the growth of CLT property values), dead (thanks to their gun control policies at my place of work) and miserable (I can't see my heels play their first round games in state).

That is a hell of a political platform.

[CLT2014]

Did you hear from the team working to land CoStar that HB2 was the biggest factor or was this really a dollar and cents game? What kind of incentives were we offering CoStar? I'm not surprised that Virginia was able to swoop in and make a very good case for Richmond over Charlotte. Apparently the final four was Atlanta, Charlotte, Richmond, and Kansas City. 

- 2 hour drive time from CoStar HQ in Washington DC vs. 6+ hour drive time or a flight from Charlotte. This will allow them to reduce travel expenses between the satellite office and top mgmt in Washington DC. 

- Nobody wants to be in the news with HB2 and the riots. I still have clients, weeks later, asking if "I'm ok and if Charlotte has burned to the ground." It is exhausting to explain the city is safe constantly - the riots hurt our brand with people concerned about safety, HB2 hurt our brand with progressives. It is a double hit. 

- Ability to pay lower salaries: Honestly, the banks are a HUGE threat to CoStar in Charlotte. CoStar is targeting $45k - $65k salary range for most of these jobs. The typical Charlotte banks pays more for corporate jobs. There will be an upward ceiling at CoStar since this is mainly a back office research site. In Richmond, they might be able to keep business and finance grads for a couple years in the position as they don't face as much financial services competition. In Charlotte, they'll get experience for a year and move to another financial service company in Uptown that pays more than $55,000. 

- Per the Richmond Times, CoStar visited the office they leased in June and fell in love with the top floors views of the river and adjacent park. I took a look at the office they are leasing - just as nice, if not nicer than Portman, with a beautiful park along the river at their doorstep rather than an interstate. 

They will be in the top floors of the offices on the left. Not a bad view.

Edited October 25, 2016 by CLT2014

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

Did you hear from the team working to land CoStar that HB2 was the biggest factor or was this really a dollar and cents game? What kind of incentives were we offering CoStar? I'm not surprised that Virginia was able to swoop in and make a very good case for Richmond over Charlotte. Apparently the final four was Atlanta, Charlotte, Richmond, and Kansas City. 

- 2 hour drive time from CoStar HQ in Washington DC vs. 6+ hour drive time or a flight from Charlotte. This will allow them to reduce travel expenses between the satellite office and top mgmt in Washington DC. 

- Nobody wants to be in the news with HB2 and the riots. I still have clients, weeks later, asking if "I'm ok and if Charlotte has burned to the ground." It is exhausting to explain the city is safe constantly - the riots hurt our brand with people concerned about safety, HB2 hurt our brand with progressives. It is a double hit. 

- Ability to pay lower salaries: Honestly, the banks are a HUGE threat to CoStar in Charlotte. CoStar is targeting $45k - $65k salary range for most of these jobs. The typical Charlotte banks pays more for corporate jobs. There will be an upward ceiling at CoStar since this is mainly a back office research site. In Richmond, they might be able to keep business and finance grads for a couple years in the position as they don't face as much financial services competition. In Charlotte, they'll get experience for a year and move to another financial service company in Uptown that pays more than $55,000. 

- Per the Richmond Times, CoStar visited the office they leased in June and fell in love with the top floors views of the river and adjacent park. I took a look at the office they are leasing - just as nice, if not nicer than Portman, with a beautiful park along the river at their doorstep rather than an interstate. 

Hopefully CO doesn't let me down and substantiates my claims. I can't really support it with evidence without showing my cards. HB2 was the straw that broke the camels back. 

[CLT2014]

24 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Hopefully CO doesn't let me down and substantiates my claims. I can't really support it with evidence without showing my cards. HB2 was the straw that broke the camels back. 

OK cool. I know HB2 doesn't help at all, I just feel like there are other things CoStar would take into account that outweigh that and dollar and cents are big for them. From past behavior, they negotiated a $7mil incentive package to relocate their HQ to Washington DC from Bethesda, MD... to go a few miles down the road. With this being a back office operation with entry level employees - they don't want to pay a ton in rent for this office and get a good balance between quality and price. So I have to wonder how much Portman came down on asking rent to make the location attractive to them when they have Richmond offering a lower cost of living, cheaper square footage (likely), a closer location to their HQ, incentives, less traffic, and some pretty nice looking apartments in downtown Richmond for around $1,000 per month. + Richmond didn't just go through a riot and have HB2 looming over its head. They were likely telling Charlotte "We love you guys" and also negotiating with Richmond at the same time and playing each side off the other. 

Downtown Richmond has an average ask of $21.20 per square foot and Uptown Charlotte has an average ask of $29.35... a 27% premium per square foot. Charlotte also has higher median salaries in financial services that might put pressure on the $45k - $60k salary range for CoStar research analysts. Their ability to sublease from WestRock might further give them cost savings at a nice newer building with a good location. i just don't see how our proposal could have been the lower cost option unless we exceeded Richmond and Virginia's incentive package.

Edited October 25, 2016 by CLT2014

[KJHburg]

I think it is money and cents why they are  going to Richmond. They are paying  $20 a square foot in a fully furnished space how can any uptown Charlotte tower compete with that? None can and not many places in our suburbs could either. Sounds like Costar is looking for the absolute best deal which is not surprising. http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2016/10/25/costar-to-establish-research-hub-in-richmond.html?ana=e_me_set1&s=newsletter&ed=2016-10-25&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1477404576&j=76238511   This sounds like a strictly money cost driven decision. 

Edited October 25, 2016 by KJHburg

[kermit]

Sometimes I think UP drives 60% of Charlotte media. Here is the independent source on the HB2 Costar link

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/10/25/charlotte-loses-out-on-730-job-headquarters.html?ana=e_clt_bn_newsalert&u=jDmEk%2BCKbYnAvaVfOFOlFGXcGSC&t=1477408322&j=76240991

Their source from Cushman and Wakefield gets awfully blunt about politics in the final paragraph.

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

   This sounds like a strictly money cost driven decision. 

Just curious, what is it that people gain from attempting to minimize the economic impact of HB2? I just don't see how doing that helps anybody.

EDIT: Here is the Observer story. Its essentially just a restatement of the CBJ article which they managed to add absolutely nothing to.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article110349597.html

 

Edited October 25, 2016 by kermit

[atlrvr]

I'm honestly surprised that Richmond has a big enough labor market for these jobs.  This isn't rocket surgery type work, but would have though KC, St Louis, Atlanta, or Tampa would have made more sense than Richmond, if they decided to take CLT off the list....I'm proximity to D.C. did help a lot.

This is disappointing, mainly because of the high-quality skills people learn at CoStar that they can then move to other jobs.  Maybe CoStar is concerned about the competition, but I think it helps them attract talent, if they are in a city with lots of higher paying exit opps.

[cjd5050]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

Sometimes I think UP drives 60% of Charlotte media. Here is the independent source on the HB2 Costar link

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/10/25/charlotte-loses-out-on-730-job-headquarters.html?ana=e_clt_bn_newsalert&u=jDmEk%2BCKbYnAvaVfOFOlFGXcGSC&t=1477408322&j=76240991

Their source from Cushman and Wakefield gets awfully blunt about politics in the final paragraph.

Just curious, what is it that people gain from attempting to minimize the economic impact of HB2? I just don't see how doing that helps anybody.

 

It's interesting he called out both McCrory and Roberts at the top but not the GA and then went on to say that people should vote on Nov 8th to show which party is costing us jobs and which is not.  

Here is what I don't get and would love for anyone who is well read or researched on the issue to help clarify this for me.

I have read multiple times where the HRC list of 225 cities and counties that have non-discrimination ordinances that includes protections for gender identity.  However, when I review the list, it's made clear by the HRC that these ordinances prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity in employment ordinances that governed all public and private employers in those jurisdictions.  Included in this list is Chapel Hill NC.

But when I read the text of Charlotte Ordinance #7056, it goes beyond employment discrimination and includes in prohibited acts (Section 3 - (a) ) the following language:

It shall be unlawful to deny any person the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of a place of public accommodation because of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or national origin.  

Now the above is I think the language that resulted in HB2. 

So my questions are:

Of the 225 cities that are listed on the HRC list how many go beyond protections for employment discrimination and cover facilities like the Charlotte ordinance?

How different is the Charlotte ordinance from these other cities?

The reason I am asking is, regardless of what you think on the above language, I think it's important to determine the scope of the Charlotte ordinance is compared to the other cities.  At least to have an honest conversation about the politics of the situation.  

If the Charlotte ordinance pushed the boundaries of non-discrimination ordinances beyond employment and to the use of facilities, where other cities have not, that's a pretty big point of consideration.  If this language is found in other cities then the point really does not matter.  

Does anyone know?

[J-Rob]

CO chiming in.

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article110349597.html

[Guest]

4 hours ago, atlrvr said:

I'm honestly surprised that Richmond has a big enough labor market for these jobs.  This isn't rocket surgery type work, but would have though KC, St Louis, Atlanta, or Tampa would have made more sense than Richmond, if they decided to take CLT off the list....I'm proximity to D.C. did help a lot.

This is disappointing, mainly because of the high-quality skills people learn at CoStar that they can then move to other jobs.  Maybe CoStar is concerned about the competition, but I think it helps them attract talent, if they are in a city with lots of higher paying exit opps.

Ink was practically to paper on a lease at Portman Plaza, then it all fell apart amongst the board of directors.

[KJHburg]

I am not diminishing HB2 on some prospects but I dont think it was the ONLY reason as stated in the Observer and Business Journal articles. If as reported they were looking at 300 South Tryon or 615 South College towers both rental rates in the low to mid $30 a square foot and then found some former corporate headquarter space in a newer building in Richmond (was Mead Westvaco HQ) at $20 a square foot furnished,  I do believe that had something big on their decision making and easy drive from their DC headquarters. . Here is the Washington Business Journal article http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2016/10/25/costar-to-establish-research-hub-in-richmond.html   Imagine the money they are saving and on top of their incentives. Yet 500 new jobs probably in the same pay range but not sure come to Charlotte via GoHealth and there is hardly a peep from the Observer.   The article in Richmond more about their sublease space http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_f361b40f-1f21-5292-82b6-85a148d7baa8.html

 

Edited October 26, 2016 by KJHburg

[grodney]

18 hours ago, cjd5050 said:

[HB2 stuff]

The NC Civil Rights thread is probably the best place for that post.