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Location: Between Belmont & Cramerton, North Carolina
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Bank of America Corp. broadened its search for a chief executive officer to include candidates who want to live in New York, acknowledging the bank’s biggest units are no longer based in its home of Charlotte, North Carolina...
While this would be a blow to Charlotte's already battered image most of the damage has been done. When BofA bought ML they moved the remaining IB jobs to New York. In fact they have been moving jobs there now for the last 4 years. We need one of the ex-CEOs to start a BlackRock or some other big investment firm.
Personally I'm not counting on any help from BofA for Charlotte's future. I'd like to see a lot more investment firms pop up. Charlotte should give up trying to be the second biggest banking center and try to be more like a Minneapolis or Boston where there are so many money management firms.
The only folks who will even notice whether BOFA or WELLS are here or not are people in the financial sector. Charlotte was fine b/f all the mergers and the designation of "second largest banking sector" and Charlotte will be fine if they go.
For the people who have lived here for decades, Charlotte was not "made" by banking. This city has existed as a trade center since the mid 1700s. The growth has not been ideal. In fact, the city has grown too rapidly, and our strained infrastructure shows it - and our property taxes are gonna soar because of it.
Life will go on if both banks move their headquarters.
Life will go on if both banks move their headquarters.
Well, maybe not so much for the Ritz-Carlton, which needs a steady stream of high-rollers coming into town to do business. That could be a problem if the bank headquarters are elsewhere.
Well, maybe not so much for the Ritz-Carlton, which needs a steady stream of high-rollers coming into town to do business. That could be a problem if the bank headquarters are elsewhere.
Excellent point and one I had not considered. I love the Ritz as an organization and was thrilled when they announced their plans - and I sure want them to stay. Maybe we all better go check in now and then for a weekend, lol.
Maybe when the NASCAR HOF opens, they will have specials and draw folks in that way. Seems like a strange mix but hey - folks spend a lot of money on NASCAR.
The only folks who will even notice whether BOFA or WELLS are here or not are people in the financial sector. Charlotte was fine b/f all the mergers and the designation of "second largest banking sector" and Charlotte will be fine if they go.
For the people who have lived here for decades, Charlotte was not "made" by banking. This city has existed as a trade center since the mid 1700s. The growth has not been ideal. In fact, the city has grown too rapidly, and our strained infrastructure shows it - and our property taxes are gonna soar because of it.
Life will go on if both banks move their headquarters.
We wouldn't have half of what we now have Uptown if it weren't for the banks (Blumenthal, cultural campus, arena, etc.). When it's said that banking built this town, that should be taken literally in the case of Uptown because it's very true. This city will miss that civic investment if the banking sector really begins to wither away. I wouldn't say the banks made this town, but they significantly reinvented it. They created Charlotte 2.0.
We wouldn't have half of what we now have Uptown if it weren't for the banks (Blumenthal, cultural campus, arena, etc.). When it's said that banking built this town, that should be taken literally in the case of Uptown because it's very true. This city will miss that civic investment if the banking sector really begins to wither away. I wouldn't say the banks made this town, but they significantly reinvented it. They created Charlotte 2.0.
That is true, I agree, but there are many of us who are not particularly impressed with what has been created, the way it has been created or the tax money (and tax concessions) that were involved in creating it. And . . . the buildings and history that were lost in tear-downs . . . or the poorly planned burbs . . . or the lack of roads/highways and infrastructure that should have been built BEFORE the money was poured into downtown projects . . .
One man's progress may be another man's too rapid growth accompanied by lack of foresight and strong longterm fiscal planning.
We wouldn't have half of what we now have Uptown if it weren't for the banks (Blumenthal, cultural campus, arena, etc.). When it's said that banking built this town, that should be taken literally in the case of Uptown because it's very true. This city will miss that civic investment if the banking sector really begins to wither away. I wouldn't say the banks made this town, but they significantly reinvented it. They created Charlotte 2.0.
I agree with this 100% but I would add that it was the banks that bulldozed all of the human scale stuff in downtown in the decades leading up to them building all their monumental buildings. Buildings that suck at ground level including the canyons of parking decks that exist there. Downtown has become a city that serves as a high end office park, an amusement park consisting of places to get drunk, professional sports venues and expensive eateries and a transit choke point for bus riders. So each day we have a vast migration in and out of three different populations, all of which actually live elsewhere because unless you are not of a certain demographic, there is nothing in downtown to support day to day living.
It wasn't always like this. Downtown used to be the center of activity in Charlotte. My parents were married in the 50s and got an apartment right off Central Avenue when it still went all the way to downtown. My mom used to shop at the downtown Sears, Belks, Iveys and Woolworths, and got groceries at the number of shops that sold food on a daily basis. It's nothing like this now. They moved to the beach in the Mid-60s and haven't really seen downtown much over this period. In 2007 when the LRT opened, they came here, now retirement age and took a ride on the train. They marveled at the train and the construction around it, but then asked, "where are the people?". We where there on Saturday morning and the place was like a ghost town. The end result is they enjoyed the train, they didn't like what Charlotte had become given their early 1960s perspective of the place.
This is what the banks have brought to downtown. Instead of a place that is integrated with the rest of the city, we have a bunch of monumental buildings cut off from everything else by freeways, being sold as an "urban" environment. It's a demonstration of money, not much else. The best city revival in the Carolinas at the moment is Greenville, SC. I recommend a trip there to see the downtown that Charlotte should have had.
Bank of America Corp. broadened its search for a chief executive officer to include candidates who want to live in New York, acknowledging the bank’s biggest units are no longer based in its home of Charlotte, North Carolina...
Hope they're not going to start moving large parts of BAC to NY and Wachovia/WFC to SF.
I just read about this. While I am nervous about the economic future of Charlotte, I am beginning to realize that the people of Charlotte are the ones who really make this city what it is. I was offended when they said there aren't any "qualified" applicants when this city produced Hugh McColl which made the bank what it is so that they could move it somewhere else. We will miss BofA but Charlotte will be fine. We have CRI @ UNCC, the NC Research Campus, a growing energy field, and even though we may not have super huge corporate banks we still can do banking (and do it quite well). What Charlotte needs is the rise of the entreprenuer. I think this group will be the tru savior of Charlotte.
[S]aid Thomas Brown, CEO of New York-based hedge fund Second Curve Capital: "There aren't too many people around the world who think that Charlotte is a major financial center."
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