Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Charlotte economic developer: Boeing's a 'long shot'

Speaking to a gathering of corporate real estate professionals today, one of the region's top job recruiters said Charlotte is a "long shot" to win the emerging national bidding war for Boeing's planned 777X aircraft manufacturing plant.

Ronnie Bryant, CEO of the Charlotte Regional Partnership, made the comment during a speech at the City Club uptown to the Carolinas chapter of CoreNet Global, a professional group with chapters around the world. Bryant, whose group markets the 16-county Charlotte region to outside companies, said the Queen City is extremely competitive in recruiting jobs in many industries, including aerospace.


But referring to the quest to land the Boeing plant, he said: "I think it's a long shot for this market." Asked for elaboration after the event ended, Bryant told the Observer he didn't know if Charlotte and North Carolina would be able to match the kind of incentives other competitors are offering.

Charlotte is among more than a dozen cities and states submitting bids to win the plant and thousands of good-paying jobs that would come with it. Washington state, already home to a large Boeing presence, has offered an $8.7 billion incentives package to keep the new jobs there. "That's a big number," Bryant said. "We've never approved anything like that."

Gov. Pat McCrory and Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker have declined to talk about the project. Bryant said his group isn't involved. "I don't see it," he said, referring to the chances of Charlotte getting the plant. "But maybe someone sees something I don't see."

10 comments:

Adolf said...

He's right... the current political climate in NC is not going to lure big deals like Boeing here. It's going to scare them off.

Cornelia said...

There was a whole other party in power when South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee lured the car companies, while NC sat on the sidelines. How did that work out for us? Not too long ago, we has the fourth highest unemploymentI among the 50 states. Epic Fail! Looks like we are continuing down that path. Guess we'd rather give our people a fish rather than the opportunity to catch their own school. The better to capture the votes, I guess.

Anonymous said...

Boeing is struggling to find people who can read in South Carolina and is having to go outside the South to find qualified workers. You can throw all kinds of money at a company but if you can't find competent workers you're in trouble.

Anonymous said...

They can't find people who can read for the workforce because we now have to promote kids who refuse to learn and have no supportive homelife. There could be no bigger prise than Boeing, but I guess Mr Bryant has short vision that prevents him from seeing the advantage decades into the future. He should be admonished for even syaing this, since it will have an adverse affect on Boeing's decision.

Anonymous said...

Boeing is just playing head games to get a favorable union agreement in Washington.

Anonymous said...

If your boy Mcrory is serious about bringing to the depressed areas of the state, like he has said, then he should pushing hard for Kinston. Charlotte has more than it's fair share of growth.

Anonymous said...

They submitted Kinston, Greensboro, and Charlotte as capable sites. Also, Bryant should buck up. The reason Washington state is having to offer such an expensive incentive pkg is to compensate for the union issues.

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