The Good News Report

[HopHead]

File this under speculation for now, but it appears that Sears may be looking to move their HQ out of Chicago according to this Chicago Suntimes article. North Carolina, in addition to South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee are the targeted states. As with any relocation they'll be looking for incentives. It of course is more of just a threat right now to see if they can get anything out of Illinois, so I wouldn't get excited yet It doesn't mention cities in any of the states specifically, however one would have to imagine if they are looking at NC, Charlotte is one of the cities being discussed. A Sears move would be to the tune of potentially 6,200 jobs for the new location.

[krazeeboi]

I bet they're not really planning on going anywhere but just want to milk as much incentives out of Illinois as they can.

[southslider]

^I would hope Governor Purdue's plan to eliminate the state corporate tax would be incentive enough for multiple HQ relocations to North Carolina.

[15895]

Duke Energy has signed an agreement with China’s ENN Group expanding cooperation on clean energy and pairing the city of Charlotte in the EcoPartnership program with Langfang, China.

Duke and ENN have agreed to work together on projects to test solar power generation, substation and community battery-storage capabilities, grid management and energy-efficiency initiatives.

“A team from ENN will be in Charlotte next week and we will be working on project plans, what the schedules look like and where different projects will be done,” says Duke’s Chief Technolgy Officer David Mohler.

Read more: Duke, Charlotte expand green energy agreement with Chinese {sodEmoji.|} Charlotte Business Journal

Weren't we Hoping to score an ENN North American HQ?

[Niner National]

Weren't we Hoping to score an ENN North American HQ?

Yes.

[Windsurfer]

I bet they're not really planning on going anywhere but just want to milk as much incentives out of Illinois as they can.

This is exactly what they did about 20 years ago. I'll never forget all the hoopla when Johnny Harris flew them around what is now Balley-hoo-tine. It was the talk of the town for about a couple of months.

[jednc]

This is exactly what they did about 20 years ago. I'll never forget all the hoopla when Johnny Harris flew them around what is now Balley-hoo-tine. It was the talk of the town for about a couple of months.

Yup, and in the end they moved out of Chicago to Hoffman Estates (which would be like moving from Charlotte to Concord). There was even a memo circulating through the company talking about what a hick town Charlotte was. I think I'll pass this time around, but thanks anyway Sears.

[SmellyCat]

Yup, and in the end they moved out of Chicago to Hoffman Estates (which would be like moving from Charlotte to Concord). There was even a memo circulating through the company talking about what a hick town Charlotte was. I think I'll pass this time around, but thanks anyway Sears.

Hey, glad to hear Sears is still in business. That's news to me, I thought they went under about 15 years ago. :-)

[krazeeboi]

I stand by my original assertion that Sears is probably trying to milk more incentives out of Illinois, but I think if they are serious about possibly relocating, the only place they are considering in the Carolinas is the Charlotte metro area.

[HopHead]

I couldn't find a Ballantyne Corporate Park thread and I'm not sure this really warranted creating a new one, but this would fall under the "Good News" realm anyways. According to today's Charlotte Business Journal, The Bissell Co. is seeking to increase the amount of office space that can be built in Ballantyne Corp Park by 1 million square feet, 200 additional hotel rooms and 600 residential units. This would raise the ceiling to over 6.5 million sq ft. Currently, over 3.6 million has been developed. The one important nugget in this article was that Ballantyne has "prospects" for over 4,000 new jobs and 1 million sqft in office space. These deals include 3 firms in the food services business and others in real estate and financial services. Will be interesting to see how this shakes out. If you go to the Charlotte Biz Journals site and see the "View this week's Print Edition", go to page 6 and you'll find the article.

[Skyybutter]

I couldn't find a Ballantyne Corporate Park thread and I'm not sure this really warranted creating a new one, but this would fall under the "Good News" realm anyways. According to today's Charlotte Business Journal, The Bissell Co. is seeking to increase the amount of office space that can be built in Ballantyne Corp Park by 1 million square feet, 200 additional hotel rooms and 600 residential units. This would raise the ceiling to over 6.5 million sq ft. Currently, over 3.6 million has been developed. The one important nugget in this article was that Ballantyne has "prospects" for over 4,000 new jobs and 1 million sqft in office space. These deals include 3 firms in the food services business and others in real estate and financial services. Will be interesting to see how this shakes out. If you go to the Charlotte Biz Journals site and see the "View this week's Print Edition", go to page 6 and you'll find the article.

Very glad to hear about the 4000 job prospects. I just cant figure out how this area can handle more traffic at this point. 485 is awful already. Maybe if the new residential is pedestrian friendly people will live/work. But as we all know people that work in and around Ballantyne want the McMansion and big yard. Oh well, enjoy sitting in traffic.

[HopHead]

Very glad to hear about the 4000 job prospects. I just cant figure out how this area can handle more traffic at this point. 485 is awful already. Maybe if the new residential is pedestrian friendly people will live/work. But as we all know people that work in and around Ballantyne want the McMansion and big yard. Oh well, enjoy sitting in traffic.

From what I read, the traffic situation will be addressed first. Then the expansion will commence. Though, I guess one does question how much the traffic improvements will do. It may help out in the short term, but once the office park expands with all these new jobs, 485 will just return to parking lot status again.

[cltbwimob]

Buckhead Beef is expanding in Charlotte. Initially the expansion will be 40 jobs or so but could potentially grow to 100 in the next few years.

[atlrvr]

While Morgan Stanley has shut their retail banking operations here, another bank looks to be opening up shop.

Capital One Bank just promoted Jon Witter (formerly of Morgan Stanley in Charlotte and prior to that Wachovia) to head of retail banking and reporting to the CEO. I believe his official office are in D.C. at Capital One's HQ, but he continues to live in Charlotte. Capital One has hired several retail banking people in a variety of functions, but they are about to expand operations in a big way. They will be hiring several dozen over the next several months. Jobs will be in IT, deposits processing, and loan servicing. Probably a large number of back office jobs, but also a good number of management positions, and possibly some phone bankers similar to what Morgan Stanley had. However, unlike MS, which was running a virtual bank through its wealth managment offices, these jobs here will be supporting actual retail branch locations in their existing footprint (mid-atlantic). I don't have insight into where their offices will be, but my guess is this could eventually turn into 100+ jobs.

Retraction. Jobs are going to Richmond.

[HopHead]

According to today's Charlotte Biz Journals: The Babcock & Wilcox Co. plans to expand its nuclear division in Charlotte and put the headquarters of its modular nuclear reactor operations here. Over the next few years, the company expects to roughly double its 120-employee work force in Charlotte.

[HopHead]

Lowe's plans to hire up to 300 Information Technology employees at its Charlotte-area headquarters.

[HopHead]

I'm not sure how much local impact this will have (perhaps someone like atlrvr can provide better insight), but three of the nation's largest banks: BofA, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan are entering into a Joint Venture called "clearXChange". This is a payment service similar to Paypal, for mobile devices. It will compete directly with Google's service and Paypal. The JV will be based in Charlotte.

[aceboogie]

I'm not sure how much local impact this will have (perhaps someone like atlrvr can provide better insight), but three of the nation's largest banks: BofA, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan are entering into a Joint Venture called "clearXChange". This is a payment service similar to Paypal, for mobile devices. It will compete directly with Google's service and Paypal. The JV will be based in Charlotte.

Well, if it turns out to be a success then this will be great for Charlotte.

[HopHead]

In today's Charlotte Biz Journal (print edition), there's some more details about the ClearXchange joint venture. As mentioned above, the JV will be based in Charlotte. It provides the capability to exchange money through a phone number or email address. ClearXchange currently has 14 employees located uptown and they are piloting the program in Arizona for BofA, WF and JP Morgan customers at the moment. The intent is to roll it out nationwide sometime early 2012. From what the article says, they are intent on making this a major service offering, competing with Paypal. Just to put it into perspective, Paypal employs 8,000 people worldwide and processed $92 billion in payments last year. So if this JV is successful, it could be a boon for Charlotte.

Edited May 27, 2011 by dbull75

[HopHead]

Charlotte-based Cato Corp yesterday announced an increase in net-income to over $57 million last year, along with a dividend increase. Also, announced yesterday that they will adding 60,000 sqft to their existing headquarters space and will be building a new 200,000 distribution center. The investment will be $40 million. No mention on job increases, but one would imagine that there will be the case to accommodate the new space.

[krazeeboi]

Wow, I had no clue Cato was headquartered in Charlotte. My mom dragged me into this store with her when I was growing up more times than I care to count, LOL.

[kermit]

The cahmber and the state have a 'jobs announcement' tomorrow morning @10:45 at the UNCC bioinformatics building. Sounds like it might be interesting.....

[DMann]

Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems plans to open an engineering center in Charlotte and create 135 high-paying jobs over the next five years.

This morning, state officials approved giving the Japanese company up to $2.9 million in incentives if it meets hiring and investment targets.

The company will pay average annual salaries of $102,454. Mitsubishi also considered expansion in South Carolina.

The Charlotte center will help build nuclear plants in the United States.

Gov. Bev Perdue plans to make an announcement about new jobs in Charlotte this morning.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/05/31/2339896/mitsubishi-nuclear-to-add-135.html#ixzz1NxDK8uTa

[krazeeboi]

Definitely another significant step towards Charlotte becoming an energy hub.

[cltbwimob]

This is not necessarily good news for Charlotte just yet, but depending on where the plant is built, it could be.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/power_city/2011/05/nc-lands-250m-greenhousepower-plant.html