The Good News Report

[cltbwimob]

Curtiss-Wright is moving it's corporate HQ to Charlotte.  Annual revenues of approximately $2 billion put it somewhere on the lower end of the Fortune 1000 list (I do not have an account with CNN/Fortune  so I can not verify this claim).

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/02/17/4702926/curtiss-wright-shifts-corporate.html#.UwK76bTyOSo

 

Not a jobs announcement per se, but an incredible addition to our list of corporate residents.

Edited February 18, 2014 by cltbwimob

[CLTProductions]

Curtiss-Wright is moving it's corporate HQ to Charlotte.  Annual revenues of approximately $2 billion put it somewhere on the lower end of the Fortune 1000 list (I do not have an account with CNN/Fortune  so I can not verify this claim).

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/02/17/4702926/curtiss-wright-shifts-corporate.html#.UwK76bTyOSo

 

Not a jobs announcement per se, but an incredible addition to our list of corporate residents.

To Ballantyne of course....missed opportunity for uptown.....again   

[cltbwimob]

^^^It doesn't really matter. Charlotte industrial conglomerates typically find themselves in office parks and more specifically Ballantyne. This is not a company I would have expected in downtown.

The good news is that we gained a new Fortune 1000 HQ and a company whose namesake can be traced to the Wright brothers. It brings increased notoriety in Charlotte's efforts to land aerospace/defense businesses and is a net positive for our area.

Edited February 18, 2014 by cltbwimob

[atlrvr]

To Ballantyne of course....missed opportunity for uptown.....again   

 

To be fair, they were already located there, and this isn't really and relocation/expansion.  An executive who already worked out of ther Charlotte office was named CEO.  The article indicated no announced job expansion, but I suspect they slowly add corporate positions here.  That said, I doubt we see them leave Ballantyne for the reason cltbwimob indicated.

[CLTProductions]

To be fair, they were already located there, and this isn't really and relocation/expansion.  An executive who already worked out of ther Charlotte office was named CEO.  The article indicated no announced job expansion, but I suspect they slowly add corporate positions here.  That said, I doubt we see them leave Ballantyne for the reason cltbwimob indicated.

Should have read more into it haha.

[HopHead]

Not really "new" Good News per say, but the previously announced AIG Technology Center in Charlotte will be in the uptown BB&T Center. That's 230 new jobs with an average of $100k year. Always good to have more high paying jobs in the center city.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2014/02/aig-leases-space-at-bb-t-center-for-new-technology.html

[rjp212]

NTE Energy is planning to build a 480-megawatt Natural Gas plant in Kings Mountain.   The project will cost about $450 million dollars and will bring 350 jobs during construction.  Once it is online in 2018, they expect it to create 30 permenant jobs.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/outside_the_loop/2014/02/nte-energy-to-build-450m-power-plant-in-kings.html.

Edited February 25, 2014 by rjp212

[HopHead]

The Charlotte Chamber had a semi-cryptic tweet this AM indicating that there may be a few jobs announcements regarding foreign firms in the next week:  

 

We hope to have an announcement or two regarding foreign companies while @aaronbrickman is here. #jobs #cltbiz

[HopHead]

A new mortgage lender, called Irongate Home Finance LLC, will open a new uptown office in April. Hiring 125 people out of the gate. Potentially a few hundred more. It's a venture from some former JP Morgan and UBS execs. 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/bank_notes/2014/02/mortgage-lender-to-hire-125-open-headquarters-in.html

 

EDIT: Additional note on top of Kermit's post below, Charlotte will be the company's HQ.

Edited February 26, 2014 by wend28

[kermit]

^ and they will be in the First Citizens building on S Tryon.

[DMann]

Fred Flintstone would be proud!

 

Japanese Company Opens
North American Headquarters in Charlotte

Japanese company Yamada Dobby announced today that it has opened its North American headquarters in Charlotte. This location will serve as the company’s new equipment sales office, technical service center and spare parts warehouse for its high-speed metal stamping press line.

Yamada Dobby has been in business since 1919 and is based near Nagoya, Japan. The company produces mechanical and servo presses for the metal stamping industry, with stamping force ranging from 3 tons up to 600 tons and speeds up to 4,000 strokes per minute — the record for the fastest press in the world. Yamada Dobby’s precision metal stamping presses have helped industries including electrical connectors, lead frames, motor cores and integrated circuit boards.

Yamada Dobby continues the tradition of technological development with its line of 65 different press models and 20 different models of the company’s material feeder systems. Together with its research and develop team, Yamada Dobby continues to advance the metal stamping press industry, creating the technology for its machines to lead the industry into the future.

Yamada Dobby decided on Charlotte because of the city’s proximity to the company’s main customer base on the East Coast, Charlotte’s skilled workforce, Charlotte Douglas International Airport and easy interstate access, which allows the company to respond quickly to customer needs.

Yamada Dobby is currently looking to fill positions for skilled mechanical and electrical field service technicians who have the ability to travel throughout North America to install and repair the company’s metal stamping presses.

The Charlotte Chamber assisted Yamada Dobby during its evaluation of Charlotte. The chamber would like to thank the N.C. Department of Commerce and the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Japan office for bringing the lead.

For additional information on Yamada Dobby, please visit yamadadobby.com or contact either of the following:

 

 

 

Yabba Dabba Do!

Edited March 4, 2014 by DMann

[Madison Parkitect]

There's an article on their own website that says they opened an office in Harrisburg last October. Is this connected to that office (a short move from Harrisburg to Charlotte), the same thing as that office (calling Harrisburg "Charlotte"), or a separate deal (keeping the Harrisburg office and putting the HQ in Charlotte proper)?

 

http://yamadadobby.com/en/news_usa.html

Edited March 4, 2014 by Windsor Parkitect

[Temeteron]

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/outside_the_loop/2014/03/red-ventures-to-close-two-u-s-offices-move-200.html?fb_action_ids=10101513353536120&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B1419032865012046%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.recommends%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

 

RedVentures is closing its Miami and San Antonio offices and moving over 200 jobs to Charlotte!

[carolinagarnet]

The Observer must be slow on the uptake- they just reported the AIG 230 jobs announcement.

[HopHead]

The Observer must be slow on the uptake- they just reported the AIG 230 jobs announcement.

 

They reported it a few months ago when it was announced. I think today it was just about AIG officially committing to an uptown office building and just doing their fist bumps. 

[15895]

I wonder what this & the latest few announcements bring our office vacancy rate down to

[ah59396]

I wonder what this & the latest few announcements bring our office vacancy rate down to

My understanding was AIG plans to house these employees on the grassy hill behind the Grant Thorton building.

[15895]

My understanding was AIG plans to house these employees on the grassy hill behind the Grant Thorton building.

[atlrvr]

A Chinese company specializing in coal power is moving their Charlotte office to a building they bought in South Park and relocating their US headquarters to that building as well from West Virginia, which will relocate 30 people, plus they plan to hire 30 more.

 

Potentially bigger news is that Ally promoted their top Charlotte-base exec (Jeff Brown) to be head of their largest business unit (Dealer finance and insurance), with the old exec based in Detroit.  This, along with I believe the head of banking already based in Charlotte, and the CFO being based in Charlotte is really concentrating the center of power here.  The CEO is actually based in NY, but I suspect he retires within the next 2 years, and all indication point to Jeff Brown being named the next CEO.  If that occurs, I would say it's highly likely that official HQ relocates to Charlotte.  They are also quitely growing here (Observer reports 750 jobs in Charlotte now and I know they leased another floor in the Ally Center last year).  I predict they at somepoint become the anchor tenant for the Portman Tower as their is only 1 floor left to grow in their current building.

 

Also, Jeld-Wen apparantly just got a new CEO, and has stopped sponsoring the Portland Timbers MLS soccer stadium.  It wouldn't surprise me if they relocated their global HQ here as well in the next few years. 

[Madison Parkitect]

When Jen-Weld moves here they can sponsor the Charlotte MLS team's stadium

[MilZ]

Sorry  

But if they helped funding to re-purpose memorial stadium into a soccer-specific stadium like the current Jeld-Wen Field in Portland...

 

But back to reality, if the company HQ came here, that'd be great.

[Niner National]

Getting HQ's for both Jeld-Wen and Ally Bank would be awesome.

[DEnd]

But back to reality, if the company (Jeld-Wen) HQ came here, that'd be great.

No it wouldn't. It'd be as idiotic of a move as Boeing moving its HQ to Chicago.

Edited March 14, 2014 by DEnd

[kermit]

No it wouldn't. It'd be as idiotic of a move as Boeing moving its HQ to Chicago.

 

I think its a natural fit (they have some production nearby and the Southeast should be the epicenter of single family home construction for a while) and it could put some of the region's old furniture manufacturing capacity back to work.

[DEnd]

I think its a natural fit (they have some production nearby and the Southeast should be the epicenter of single family home construction for a while) and it could put some of the region's old furniture manufacturing capacity back to work.

It still makes no sense. They are in a county with a rising unemployment rate, a similar cost of living, an existing manufacturing base and training programs, as a major manufacturer they have a lot of political pull there where as in Charlotte they would just be another corporate player. The base business advantages just aren't there, unless they will be shifting a lot of manufacturing work to the area. I don't see the labor advantages of shifting their manufacturing from Oregon to here. There are shipping advantages but those mostly fall on the custom order side.