The Good News Report

[kermit]

Its not really a jobs announcement but this (in my opinion) is significant to the future of our energy cluster: Charlotte's bankers have teamed up with local energy guys to begin investing private-equity in energy firms.

 

Private equity firm Falfurrias Capital Partners [Hugh McColl and partners] and the former chief executive of Siemens AG's North American Transmission and Distribution division have teamed up to launch a new company focused on acquiring manufacturers and service providers in the power transmission and distribution market.

 

The article briefly discusses their first investment, the purchase of locally-based Instrument Transformer Equipment Corp. Admittedly this mid-level private equity investment is not the early stage venture type investment that creates start ups. However, if Charlotte can become known as a center of finance for energy firms at any stage of their life-cycle then maybe we really can attract a critical mass of firms in the sector.

Edited March 14, 2013 by kermit

[Guest]

Handsome building

Interestingly enough I was doing some research on the new SunTrust Building and the building as shown in the picture is only 69,000 square feet of office/retail. They reference the building being over 100k, so that means they should be adding at least 2 floors more than shown.

http://sharonsquareclt.com/pdf/Sharon-Square-brochure.pdf

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/03/14/3912204/suntrust-to-open-regional-headquarters.html

[kermit]

another German manufacturer is setting up shop near the airport. No job creation number provided.

 

The Kübler Group, a privately-held German manufacturer, announced today the opening of its first U.S. subsidiary, Kuebler Inc., in Charlotte at 5245-3 Old Dowd Road. Kübler specializes in the manufacture of innovative position and motion sensors, counting and process technology, and transmission technology.

 

http://echo4.bluehornet.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=22289536936&ch=FB455FFFFC66E62FF67F540E485A1903&h=3c5a0a18ac6f1da2c8aa76dc53b55007&ei=T2Z5bGrNr

[HopHead]

XPO Logistics will expand their Charlotte operations by adding 287 new jobs by the end of next year at their Ballantyne offices: http://charlottechamber.com/index.php?src=news&refno=4486&category=Economic+Development+News

[ah59396]

I was watching the news earlier and caught a snippet of them saying something about "an unknown international company looking to come to Charlotte that could bring up to 1700 jobs".  Does anyone have any clue what they could be referring to?  They obviously had very limited information...

[15895]

I was watching the news earlier and caught a snippet of them saying something about "an unknown international company looking to come to Charlotte that could bring up to 1700 jobs". Does anyone have any clue what they could be referring to? They obviously had very limited information...

I hope ENN.

[Niner National]

I really don't see a solar company bringing 1,700 jobs to the city. All a solar company really needs is business development, marketing, some engineers, and financial people. Installation is all sub-contracted to electricians and manufacturing doesn't make sense financially here.

 

Solar is very capital intensive, but labor light. At most they'd likely need a couple hundred full time employees to run a U.S. operation. 

 

ENN hasn't had a lot of news come out about it in the last year, so I'm wondering what is going on with them. With the way Chinese solar companies have taken a beating in the last year (SunTech, the largest in China recently went bankrupt and so have several other huge manufacturers of solar panels and equipment), it wouldn't surprise me if ENN's solar division is a shell of its former self. It is also important to note that ENN uses an antiquated solar technology that is not highly desirable today. Solar is all about financials, so when you use panels that convert sunlight to electricity at a lower efficiency than other technologies on the market, you are going to run into trouble. Solar projects need to squeeze as much capacity and efficiency per square foot as possible.

 

Hope I'm wrong, but Chinese solar is not doing well, so I suspect this will be something else.

[rancenc]

Let's cross our fingers that all three select Cabarrus County!! Of course we will take a least of one of the announcements!!

 

http://www.hickoryrecord.com/independent_tribune/news/article_b2f39224-97e0-11e2-ab20-001a4bcf6878.html

[ah59396]

^ Based on the jobs number, that might be what the news was talking about.

[atlrvr]

The City approved MetLife's subsidy last week and some additional details emerged.  We are actually getting more jobs than Cary, but lower paying on average.  Also, they are negotiating a lease of 350,000 sq ft in the two new Ballantyne towers which is all of one tower and 40% of the second,  Total jobs required for Charlotte is 1,386 at > $58,000 year average.   It wouldn't surprise me if long-term they add more to Charlotte, and looking at job postings, it looks like they are already recruiting.

 

The up to 1,700 manufacturing jobs sounds great for Cabarrus.  I wonder if any of those would be for the old Phillip Morris plant.

 

There have been two recent announcements in the last 2 weeks of Chinese companies expanding US headquarters here.  It would be great for Charlotte to continue to attract Asian investment.

[Niner National]

Not a huge job creator, but another NA HQ has been moved to Charlotte!

 

Sleich Toys will be creating 60 jobs in Charlotte. 49 of those will be new hires.

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/04/02/3953787/germany-based-toymaker-brings.html

[HopHead]

The City approved MetLife's subsidy last week and some additional details emerged.  We are actually getting more jobs than Cary, but lower paying on average.  Also, they are negotiating a lease of 350,000 sq ft in the two new Ballantyne towers which is all of one tower and 40% of the second,  Total jobs required for Charlotte is 1,386 at > $58,000 year average.   It wouldn't surprise me if long-term they add more to Charlotte, and looking at job postings, it looks like they are already recruiting.

 

The up to 1,700 manufacturing jobs sounds great for Cabarrus.  I wonder if any of those would be for the old Phillip Morris plant.

 

There have been two recent announcements in the last 2 weeks of Chinese companies expanding US headquarters here.  It would be great for Charlotte to continue to attract Asian investment.

 

Looks like your suspicion may be correct (perhaps quicker than we thought). According to the CBJ, MetLife is already pondering the addition of hundreds of more jobs to Charlotte (possibly up to 1,000) on top of 1,350 already committed. 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2013/04/02/metlife-weighs-adding-more-jobs-in.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[atlrvr]

Intresting.  If I were a betting man, I'd say they will move their Rhode Island based HQ for Auto and Home Insurance here.

[nowensone]

Not sure just how good of news it is for Charlotte, will be if we continue becoming an energy hub, though in that case the question becomes is natural gas a resource that NC/SC has that can be funneled here as a storage/transport hub.

 

Link 

[kermit]

RPS Robot Protection Systems Inc. Opens First U.S. Office in Charlotte (on S Tryon no less). Does this mean that the 'transformative' Crescent project is actually Delta City?

http://echo4.bluehornet.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=22477912436&ch=F4B8E61E59B51949EFBE82897E065C73&h=332ec6e86fb003303b94d844fe5c2a80&ei=T5Xm4KruN

 

EDIT: \/ Thanks RDF! that is the best view of Delta City I have seen. It looks like a 'through the windshield' photo, did you snap the picture from your 6000SUX?.

Edited April 9, 2013 by kermit

[Guest]

RPS Robot Protection Systems Inc. Opens First U.S. Office in Charlotte. Does this mean that the 'transformative' Crescent project is actually Delta City?

http://echo4.bluehornet.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=22477912436&ch=F4B8E61E59B51949EFBE82897E065C73&h=332ec6e86fb003303b94d844fe5c2a80&ei=T5Xm4KruN

[tozmervo]

^ omgsh they're going in my building! i'm going to be on the elevator with robocop! SWEET.

[RVA2CLT]

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"
 

[nowensone]

We should designate a street or part of town "Little Germany" in honor of our new friends, and convince Spaten to brew beer locally.

[Urbanity]

Why do I get the hunch that by the end of the day a rumor will be making the rounds that Charlotte just landed a major brewer?

[kermit]

The Robocop cluster continues to grow:

m_PAC USA, LLC announced the opening of its new headquarters in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.

m_PAC USA is an international, high-end, security developer and manufacturer, which focuses primarily on camera and related surveillance systems.

http://echo4.bluehornet.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=22501129494&ch=72AFFA4349C0AE08ADC01B05BB6D108B&h=791544187fab025f3de47b139041a649&ei=TA5HcdrNT

[Urbanity]

^ I think this is really kind of cool - not only does it diversify our economy, but it's continuing to build the international cluster.   Granted we are talking small operations at this point - but it's still very promising.

[HopHead]

Amazing to me how many German companies continue to open operations in Charlotte... Great for building the international presence here. 

[ah59396]

Maybe we should change our local motto to "ich bin ein mecklenburger" .  For what it's worth, Germany is awesome and Munich may be my favorite city on Earth.

[nowensone]

That sounds yummy.  They put bacon on that?