Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What exactly is driving the growth in the Charlotte metro area?
I get the Triangle due to it's tech, academic, and biotech/medical clusters. DC is booming due to government. Atlanta due to all of the corporate headquarters (that are coming and relocating) and international airport hub, along with a nice university cluster as well. Is the banking industry responsible for Charlotte? Is there a big entrepreneurial spirit in the area?
What drives any city to grow?
Jobs, lifestyle, weather, schools, culture, etc.
Feels like there is a solid base here with the financial industry and that spurs on growth in other sectors. The construction industry alone is probably adding jobs to the city.
Its many of the same reasons you cite for Atlanta and kbutler cites...a hub airport, a solid base of existing corporations and the resulting available labor force, a high quality of life that attracts people to move here and makes it easy for companies to recruit employees.
Charlotte was well positioned coming out of the recession as companies closely examined their corporate structures and made moves to cut costs and get more efficient (Husqvarna, Electrolux, MSC Industrial, Met Life all relocated major operations here in the past few years). Our leadership has been smart to jump on the energy bandwagon and we've seen Siemens expand several times, ABB moved here, nuclear engineering grew, Duke Power grew and added jobs. Time Warner has added thousands of corporate and it jobs in the city over the past few years.
The finance industry has long been considered Charlotte's calling card but many people work in other fields like healthcare,energy etc. We could see even larger growth in the area as the land around the airport becomes developed as a logistics center along with close, direct rail access to 3 major east coast ports& a central location to major population centers.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.