The Good News Report

[KJHburg]

Not right in Charlotte but in a city we all love: Asheville. Buncombe County's largest job announcement in its history 550 new jobs http://edcmktg.ashevillechamber.org/acton/rif/7486/s-00a4-1609/-/l-0003:175/l-0003/showPreparedMessage?sid=TV2:4ghgu8JDO

We need something good tonight

[RiverwoodCLT]

Caribbean-based architecture, engineering firm launching U.S. hub in Charlotte

This may bring a fresh look of development around Charlotte

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/09/21/caribbean-based-architecture-engineering-firm.html

[KJHburg]

Corning adding 105 jobs in Catawba County and some more in Winston.  A strong region is important for Charlotte city staying economically strong. http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/09/26/corning-optical-to-add-105-jobs-in-hickory-to.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=article_du&ed=2016-09-26&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1474920461&j=75911612

[KJHburg]

How Charlotte is developing more infill and transit oriented retail developments http://rebusinessonline.com/infill-transit-oriented-developments-are-driving-charlottes-retail-market/

[KJHburg]

The JLL Office market report for 3rd quarter is out and it continues to show strengthening office market with lower vacancies, more absorption of office space and continue growth. You can download the report from here http://www.jll.com/charlotte/en-us/research  Overall year to date is 843,000 absorbed and vacancy of 11.8% including sublease space. Pretty positive and for whatever reason the 4th quarter is usually the strongest quarter in Charlotte. 

[Nick2]

I love it. It's great news that absorption is so high still. Maybe this round of building still has a while to go yet before it cools down.

[KJHburg]

Here are some updated photos of Amazon's new 500,000 sq ft warehouse on Wilkinson Blvd, the city biggest job announcement of the year you won't hear a lot about. I counted 90 dock doors on both sides of the warehouses, lots of new parking being graded. This fulfillment center is different than the Concord sortation center where packages are sorted. One of the reasons I think this location was chosen was close proximity to CLT airport as Amazon will soon have a fleet of 40 delivery planes. My guess on employment at least 500 but more likely closer to 750 based on centers such as this around the country.   Here is a link from the Wall St Journal about Amazon's plan and explains what they are doing and so forth. It is a subscriber only article http://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-newest-ambitioncompeting-directly-with-ups-and-fedex-1474994758  but find a paper copy from Wed 9/28 

Edited October 2, 2016 by KJHburg
Link added

[cltbwimob]

40 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Here are some updated photos of Amazon's new 500,000 sq ft warehouse on Wilkinson Blvd, the city biggest job announcement of the year you won't hear a lot about. I counted 90 dock doors on both sides of the warehouses, lots of new parking being graded. This fulfillment center is different than the Concord sortation center where packages are sorted. One of the reasons I think this location was chosen was close proximity to CLT airport as Amazon will soon have a fleet of 40 delivery planes. My guess on employment at least 500 but more likely closer to 750 based on centers such as this around the country.   Here is a link from the Wall St Journal about Amazon's plan and explains what they are doing and so forth. It is a subscriber only article http://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-newest-ambitioncompeting-directly-with-ups-and-fedex-1474994758  but find a paper copy from Wed 9/28 

I would love to see CLT become an air hub for Prime Air.

[CLT2014]

Printful, a print-on-demand company that prints and ships print products for e-commerce retailers is opening a regional headquarters in Charlotte. Currently the company has one US site in Chatsworth, California (the other location is Latvia) and the new Charlotte facility will be 100,000 sq. feet, three times larger than the Chatsworth office. Printful will create 200 jobs in Charlotte. The company's CEO said "Charlotte will be Printful's hub for innovation, expanding our products and services, and for planning future growth.” 

Printful's office and facility will be in the Steele Creek/SW CLT manufacturing area, not far from Siemens Energy's plant.

Edited October 3, 2016 by CLT2014

[KJHburg]

Heres the Business Journal article on the Lativian printing company http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/10/03/latvian-print-on-demand-company-expands-to.html?ana=RSS%26s%3Darticle_search&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Nick2]

A few good news topics:

According to a new WalletHub survey, Charlotte is ranked third for the largest cities with the highest growth. Large cities are defined as being over 300k people.

WCNC Article

Currently 79% of people polled say they would utilize a commuter rail from Raleigh to Charlotte:

Poll

Kings Plush Inc. is expanding operations in Gaston county and building a new 150k sq ft facility and has made an obligation to hire 59 new employees to receive incentives. 

Article

Even with HB2, Charlotte's office market continues to be very strong with many good signs according to the recently released JLL report. Vacancy remains low throughout the city with uptown at only 8.6%. Rent prices are at an all-time high. And the report says Charlotte is undergoing "unprecedented" growth since 2008. Lastly, the under-construction market is about 44.7% preleased showing high demand for new office space.

Page to Download Full Report

Article

[KJHburg]

Charlotte named by Forbes as one of the cities where your paycheck stretches the farthest http://www3.forbes.com/leadership/25-cities-where-your-paycheck-stretches-the-farthest/10/   This is why our city keeps growing affordable and with plentiful jobs. 

[KJHburg]

Charlotte City Council going into closed session tonight to talk about economic incentives. Is this for Amazon or CoStar or some other company? anyone have any ideas

Adopt a motion pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11(a)(4) to go into closed session to discuss matters relating to the location of an industry or business in the City of Charlotte, including potential economic development incentives that may be offered in negotiations.

[KJHburg]

Here is a small Huntersville based software company growing fast now adding 2nd office in Ayrsely in SW Charlotte. They have added 20 jobs in the last year and have plenty of equity funding to grow further. http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/10/11/local-software-firm-rebrands-adds-satellite-office.html?ana=RSS%26s%3Darticle_search&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[RiverwoodCLT]

Atlantic Capital expands into Charlotte

The Atlanta-based banking company said the office will at first serve privately held companies in the greater Charlotte area, then it plans to expand through the Carolinas over time.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/10/12/atlantic-capital-expands-into-charlotte.html

[Guest]

1 hour ago, RiverwoodCLT said:

Atlantic Capital expands into Charlotte

The Atlanta-based banking company said the office will at first serve privately held companies in the greater Charlotte area, then it plans to expand through the Carolinas over time.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/10/12/atlantic-capital-expands-into-charlotte.html

Sounds like a Class-AA Office kind of outfit. Wonder where they land.

[J-Rob]

Any news that Portman and 300 S Tryon will have some potential tenants to target is exciting news.  I am still hopeful that Tryon Place will be of significant scale despite whatever ends up happening with the Lincoln Harris property, and news of this nature helps toward that goal in my mind.

[KJHburg]

New Wells CEO loves Charlotte as a place to do business and will probably add jobs here. Compared to the Bay area with office space double and triple what it is in Charlotte this seems very likely. In the past few years they took down a 163,000 sq ft in University area and the parking lot is already full. Banks under so much cost cutting pressure it makes sense to build on this hub already the largest in the Wells Fargo system. 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/banking/bank-watch-blog/article107853517.html

[CLT704]

Let's aim for Wells' HQ! I remember hearing that the fact why Wells doesn't have it's HQ in Charlotte was because of their CEO, am I imaging that?

[cjd5050]

9 hours ago, KJHburg said:

New Wells CEO loves Charlotte as a place to do business and will probably add jobs here. Compared to the Bay area with office space double and triple what it is in Charlotte this seems very likely. In the past few years they took down a 163,000 sq ft in University area and the parking lot is already full. Banks under so much cost cutting pressure it makes sense to build on this hub already the largest in the Wells Fargo system. 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/banking/bank-watch-blog/article107853517.html

I can't find it but I recall reading that lawyers were trying to go around the terms of arbitration for WF customers by trying to subpoena the names of WF employees who opened these accounts.  If they are able to get the employee names, they then intend to sue under identify theft laws and essentially bypass the arbitration process. That would make things very difficult for WF as it would expose them.  

I do wonder if those liabilities could drive cost cutting measures even more and in turn lead to what you're suggesting.  

I also wonder if Sloan tries to shake up the WF culture and lean on former Wachovia leadership that would give the outside appearance of putting a focus back on customer service as that's what Wachovia was known for.  It also helps that his parents live in Davidson I think.  

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, cjd5050 said:

I can't find it but I recall reading that lawyers were trying to go around the terms of arbitration for WF customers by trying to subpoena the names of WF employees who opened these accounts.  If they are able to get the employee names, they then intend to sue under identify theft laws and essentially bypass the arbitration process. That would make things very difficult for WF as it would expose them.  

I do wonder if those liabilities could drive cost cutting measures even more and in turn lead to what you're suggesting.  

I also wonder if Sloan tries to shake up the WF culture and lean on former Wachovia leadership that would give the outside appearance of putting a focus back on customer service as that's what Wachovia was known for.  It also helps that his parents live in Davidson I think.  

 

 

Its my opinion that Duke is going to bring their old building into the 21st Century, and are no longer in the market for extra space. That said I think the new Lincoln Harris Building will be at least 50% leased by Wells. Just speculation.

[CLT2014]

5 hours ago, CLT704 said:

Let's aim for Wells' HQ! I remember hearing that the fact why Wells doesn't have it's HQ in Charlotte was because of their CEO, am I imaging that?

Tim Sloan actually lives in a suburb of Los Angeles and commutes to the San Francisco HQ when necessary - he probably won't relocate to San Francisco or Charlotte as CEO now. He'll fly up to SF Tue - Thur, work at home or be traveling to other cities other days of the week. He won't be moving his personal residence in his mid 50's when his kids and grandchildren are in Southern California. His wife is going to want to be in the same social network, near her kids/grandkids, and I'd be shocked if she was willing to trade being near her kids to be near her in-laws, haha (it is the same situation with Moynihan at BofA). If anything he might get a condo here in CLT and commute back and forth, but that is harder to do that than the 50 minute flight from Los Angeles to SF. I'd expect Charlotte's role to remain the same under Sloan - the location where most of the growth happens, lots of senior management positions (including more and more of Community Banking leadership), and an affordable place to do banking. 

Edited October 13, 2016 by CLT2014

[Niner National]

11 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Its my opinion that Duke is going to bring their old building into the 21st Century, and are no longer in the market for extra space. That said I think the new Lincoln Harris Building will be at least 50% leased by Wells. Just speculation.

Interesting. You think it will be consolidation or growth?

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Niner National said:

Interesting. You think it will be consolidation or growth?

Growth. Again, no inside knowledge on tenants or anything for this one, except knowing the basic specs of this project. I just know with how they are proceeding with this project, they have to at least have a majority tenant signed.

 

[cjd5050]

43 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Its my opinion that Duke is going to bring their old building into the 21st Century, and are no longer in the market for extra space. That said I think the new Lincoln Harris Building will be at least 50% leased by Wells. Just speculation.

By 'bring into the 21st century' you mean blow it up and build something new?  I hope....