The Bad News Report

[videtur quam contuor]

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22 minutes ago, rancenc said:

I am cautiously optimistic on the success of this huge project in Chatham County, but I honestly I do not believe that the employment headcount and investment will be any where near the initial amount announced by the state and Vinfast.

https://news.yahoo.com/vinfast-reports-2-billion-loss-231933215.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEqtfmZ3pxoF1tgboMupHd4ypqte1WzKOk_74tTxlHVHTTpOUZ4rxuQmVa4CyT19bzaVSZ4DucvnXO99sX2nwRQUjlkVfdkq4fk2kpAz9-VTi7R8TO2eKr65TCroWvr6cMVcnho9vgV72GD2V3LIJ5QTZi2R3nZtebQQsWXtXM1K

Motor Trend reviewed the car last year and said it was unfit for market. 

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2023-vinfast-vf8-electric-suv-first-drive-review/

The VF8, as it sits, is not ready for public consumption. Once word of these problems gets around, either from reviews like this one or owners or both, it's going to savage the company's reputation in America before anyone here has even heard of it.

Edited February 23 by videtur quam contuor

[JHart]

Good ole Union County. Fighting 100 years of medical research and harming its residents in the name of personal freedom. It's a good thing they aren't self-sufficient and rely on other counties for most of their water or else this would cause more harm.

https://www.wbtv.com/2024/02/19/union-county-leaders-vote-removing-fluoride-water-supply/

[kermit]

^ fluoride nutbaggery is a really weird non-partisan thing. Union county joins the ranks of Portland Oregon in rejecting this well established public health strategy. I honestly thought that fact alone would have been enough to get Union to stick w floried.

Edited February 24 by kermit

[CLT2014]

Looks like only about 1 / 3 of Union County is impacted in the eastern and more rural portion of the county (Fairview, Unionville, Marshville, et.). The very suburban / developed western end of the county (Waxhaw, Weddington, Marvin, Indian Trail, Stallings, et...) receives water largely from the Catawba River treatment facility jointly owned with Lancaster County, SC. That facility will continue to have fluoride unless Lancaster also decides to remove it. Monroe has its own water department as a city, separate from the county water. 

https://www.unioncountync.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/8460/638440261469770000

Overall a bizarre move and I suspect the conspiracy folks are just drinking bottled water anyhow. To further add to the comedy... fluoride was literally a joke in a Parks and Rec episode: 

 

Edited February 24 by CLT2014

[nicholas]

15 hours ago, videtur quam contuor said:

.

Motor Trend reviewed the car last year and said it was unfit for market. 

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2023-vinfast-vf8-electric-suv-first-drive-review/

The VF8, as it sits, is not ready for public consumption. Once word of these problems gets around, either from reviews like this one or owners or both, it's going to savage the company's reputation in America before anyone here has even heard of it.

^this.  I could not be less of a Tesla fan, but there is no reason whatsoever to buy a Vinfast over a Model Y.  I give Vinfast until 2030 before it either goes bankrupt or withdraws from the US market.  Still think the most likely scenario is that Vinfast fails, and the Chatham County factory is acquired by another automaker.

I've said this before but now that the legacy automakers are gradually rolling out EVs, it will be virtually impossible for a newcomer to survive.  Tesla was in an extremely unique situation and is the outlier, but even companies such as Lucid and Rivian that have seen moderate success, are in precarious situations for long-term survival.  Both of those companies are reportedly losing money on each vehicle produced, whereas Tesla had managed to at minimum break even (and usually make a profit) on each car produced very early on in its history.  Scaling to larger production volumes will obviously amplify the per-unit profit or loss.

[CarolinaCrown]

https://archive.ph/Qc2ja

Sad to see them closing up shop, growing up I always thought it was an interesting building spanning the state line :

 

[Norm2]

2 hours ago, CarolinaCrown said:

https://archive.ph/Qc2ja

Sad to see them closing up shop, growing up I always thought it was an interesting building spanning the state line :

 

 I was told by a Black and Decker employee that it's the newer building directly on Carowinds Blvd that is shutting down, not the one on the state line. Hopefully the info I was given is accurate 

[CLT2014]

44 minutes ago, Norm2 said:

 I was told by a Black and Decker employee that it's the newer building directly on Carowinds Blvd that is shutting down, not the one on the state line. Hopefully the info I was given is accurate 

That's correct. The state line one is a distribution center. The one on Carowinds is a factory. 

Stanley Black and Decker posted a loss in 2023, margins continue to be stressed, and the stock is down ~60% from a 2021 peak. They got a turnaround plan in place that includes closing facilities and consolidating all across the world to improve margin. 

[ArchiCLT]

On 3/15/2024 at 2:42 PM, CLT2014 said:

That's correct. The state line one is a distribution center. The one on Carowinds is a factory. 

Stanley Black and Decker posted a loss in 2023, margins continue to be stressed, and the stock is down ~60% from a 2021 peak. They got a turnaround plan in place that includes closing facilities and consolidating all across the world to improve margin. 

Yes, the building spanning the NC-SC line was designed by WGM Design for Black & Decker in the early 1990's. Stanley and Black & Decker merged in 2009.

[KJHburg]

this is not good for uptown, the building owner Cousins or anyone Bank of America to leave 13 floors in Fifth Third Center totaling 316,xxx sq feet.

CoStar News - Bank of America To Vacate All 13 Floors It Leases at Charlotte Office Tower

and this is related to increased vacancies

Fitch: Plunge In U.S. Office Values Could Match Or Exceed 2008 Real Estate Fallout (bisnow.com)

Edited March 26 by KJHburg

[Jasons0013]

22 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

this is not good for uptown, the building owner Cousins or anyone Bank of America to leave 13 floors in Fifth Third Center totaling 316,xxx sq feet.

CoStar News - Bank of America To Vacate All 13 Floors It Leases at Charlotte Office Tower

and this is related to increased vacancies

Fitch: Plunge In U.S. Office Values Could Match Or Exceed 2008 Real Estate Fallout (bisnow.com)

Many of these floors BofA is leaving are already backfilled. 

[KJHburg]

1 minute ago, Jasons0013 said:

Many of these floors BofA is leaving are already backfilled. 

good to hear by whom? 

[kermit]

I think this closes the books on the Arrival bad news from several months ago. Sounds like absolutely nothing from the company remains in metro Charlotte.

Quote

Canoo bought the "new and like-new assets" of Arrival's U.S. arm based in Charlotte — an acquisition it disclosed in January without naming Arrival as the seller at the time. Those assets were transported from North Carolina to Canoo's Oklahoma manufacturing facility. The asset sales are the latest sign of Arrival winding down its operations after years of financial and legal challenges.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2024/04/01/canoo-inc-arrival-ev-assets-sale-electric-vehicles.html

Edited April 1 by kermit

[XRZ.ME]

On 2/6/2024 at 7:20 PM, KJHburg said:

BofA is BofA Corporate Center,  1 BAC next to the Ritz and Bank of America Tower at Legacy and the Gateway center.  Plus BofA has space at 5/3 Center and 525 N Tryon.

if anyone knows anything different please share.  

Most of the Trans America Building (401 N Tryon) is occupied by BofA

[KJHburg]

Bad news if you are a property owner, good news if you are a tenant looking for office space, and bad news if you want to see more signature office towers (there will be a lot less going forward including here in Charlotte) 

1 BILLION square feet of available office space in the USA (but dont freak out it is up only 20% since beginning the covid)

Available U.S. Office Space Tops 1B SF For First Time (bisnow.com)

All I can do is look at a market like Houston that has had a 20% vacancy rate for years and years they still have new towers just one a time now but multiple office towers going up in any submarket there just does not happen or has happened in the last decade or so.  So Charlotte will see new office towers but likely they will be smaller and no more of these multiple office towers under construction at the same time as we have had in the past.  

[KJHburg]

to follow up on my post above this is from the Cousins CEO who has 3 office towers in Charlotte including 5/3 Center, the Railyard, and 550 South Caldwell aka Nascar Plaza.    Plus Cousins owns 2 development sites one on W Tremont and one right across from Railyard on S Tryon.   I just read these comments last night from February about the office market in the southeast and his markets particularly which include Charlotte.

""In a February earnings call, Cousins President and CEO Colin Connolly said "the math for new development just does not work in today’s higher interest rate environment.”

But that lack of new construction, he said, is coming at a time when demand is returning. More workers are coming back to the office. Leasing activity is accelerating. At the same time, there is dwindling demand for “old and tall” towers in central business districts and suburban office complexes, he said. 

“Remember when retail was dead, until it wasn't,” Connolly told analysts. “Market forces are now rebalancing the office market in a similar manner. In our view, a shortage of lifestyle office properties in the Sunbelt is not far off.”""

from the Atlanta Business Chronicle 

What new office projects have been started in the last 6 months here?  None.  The longer this drought of new starts continues pushes any new office space deliveries out further and further.  Right now 3 office buildings are under construction at Commonwealth in Plaza Midwood, 110 East and 600 South Tryon tower at Legacy.  

[Norm2]

Going forward, developers really should focus on multipurpose towers, rather than single use towers. Also having entire single-use districts should be a thing of the past

[rancenc]

A relocation to Charlotte over 30 years ago is reversing and moving out of the area to Grand Rapids MI..

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2024/04/global-tape-manufacturer-to-bring-60-new-jobs-12m-investment-to-grand-rapids.html