More jobs headed to Charlotte as Korean firm sets up shop

A South Korean tool manufacturing firm announced Thursday that it will set up shop in Charlotte, hiring about 53 people at an average salary of $63,111.

YG-1 USA, which the Charlotte Chamber said ranks among the top five cutting tool manufacturers in the world, will invest $13.8 million in the project. The new facility at 11001 Park Charlotte Boulevard in southwest Charlotte will build high-performance cutting tools for the aerospace, medical and power generation industries. It will also serve as a hub for the company's research, development and engineering of cutting tool technology.

"We chose Charlotte because of its optimistic growth and bright future business outlook both domestically and internationally," said H.K. Song, chairman and president of YG-1 Korea.

Chamber President Bob Morgan said the company's move to Charlotte further burnishes the area's growing international advanced manufacturing presence. YG-1's parent company, based in Seoul, employs more than 5,000 workers around the globe, the chamber said.

Developer Peter Pappas honored as SouthPark Citizen of the Year

Noted Charlotte real estate developer Peter A. Pappas, whose body of work includes some of Charlotte's best-known mixed-use real estate projects, was honored today by the Charlotte Chamber's SouthPark chapter as its 2014 SouthPark Citizen of the Year.

Pappas, founder and president of Pappas Properties, received the award during a luncheon at Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant in SouthPark Mall. Among those present to congratulate him were businessmen Nelson Schwab and Johnny Harris, former Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones and Charlotte Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble.

Peter A. Pappas

Chamber President Bob Morgan introduced Pappas by noting his role in helping develop signature high-end projects such as the Metropolitan, Birkdale Village, Phillips Place, the Berewick subdivision in southwest Charlotte and the Sharon Square neighborhood in SouthPark.

"Anything we do, we want it to be an asset to the community," said Pappas, who is also CEO of Terwilliger Pappas, a firm he formed with Ron Terwilliger last year to develop multifamily properties. "We want to be able to look back on it and say, 'This has added value.'"

Pappas joined Morgan for a question-and-answer session in which the developer talked about the evolution of SouthPark and trends in the real estate development industry. Asked by Morgan whether he sees any lessons to learned for SouthPark in the demise of Eastland Mall, Pappas said areas shouldn't be taken for granted just because they're successful.

"That doesn't mean we should quit investing in that area," he said.

After the luncheon, Schwab called Pappas "one of the most hard-working guys you'll ever meet." He added: I think by sheer hard work, grit and determination he gets things done that otherwise wouldn't get done. I think we're the beneficiary as a community of some great projects."

Pappas said he is honored to join Tim Belk of Belk Department Stores, Allen Tate of the Allen Tate realty firm, Piedmont Natural Gas CEO Thomas Skains and real estate developer Johnny Harris as recipients of the award.

"I'm truly flattered to be a part of that group," he said.

Japanese firm opens North American HQ in Charlotte

Yamada Dobby, a Japanese company that makes high-speed metal stamping presses, announced today that it has opened its new North American headquarters in Charlotte. The company, based near Nagoya, Japan, makes precision metal stamping presses for use in manufacturing electrical connectors, lead frames, motor cores and circuit boards.

The Charlotte Chamber said the company is looking to hire skilled mechanical and electrical field service technicians who can travel throughout North America to install and repair presses.

The chamber also announced today that an Austrian company that makes cutting, bending and seaming machines will open its first U.S. subsidiary in Charlotte. WUKO Maschinenbau will lease 2,500 square feet for sales and distribution. The company is starting with three employees and hopes to hire more in the next few years.

Italian valve manufacturer moves from Rock Hill to Charlotte

Italian valve manufacturer Bonomi North America announced today that it will move its corporate offices from Rock Hill, S.C., to Charlotte, bringing 11 new jobs and possibly five more jobs over the next three years. The company bought its new facility at 750 Imperial Court with plans to expand to add assembly operations.

"We chose to relocate to Charlotte after outgrowing our existing space in Rock Hill," said Alberto Malaguti, general manager for Bonomi North America. "Charlotte is the ideal location for us -- it's in the heart of our customer base, offering the international and professional setting a world leader like Bonomi requires for further growth."

No local incentives were given as part of the deal, Charlotte Chamber officials said. A spokesman for the N.C. Department of Commerce didn't immediately respond to an email seeking information on any state incentives.

Coming to Charlotte: 50 high-paying manufacturing jobs

Canadian manufacturing firm Eclipse Automation Inc. is expanding its operations to Mecklenburg County, bringing 50 new jobs in the next three years, Gov. Pat McCrory's office said Monday.  Eclipse supplies custom automated manufacturing equipment to help companies build efficient assembly and testing operations. The firm's new facility will be located in Whitehall Technology Park in southwest Charlotte.

The company, based in Ontario, Canada, will be offering salaries averaging more than $75,000, officials said. Openings for several engineering posts to be stationed in the Charlotte office are already being advertised on the company's website.

"I'd like to thank Eclipse for creating valuable manufacturing jobs here in North Carolina," McCrory said. "Manufacturing has been a big part of our state's past and will continue to be a large part of our state's future."

New N.C. jobs plan headed to McCrory's desk

At a Charlotte Chamber luncheon, the head of the N.C. Economic Development Board said the panel will present a new economic development roadmap for the state to Gov. Pat McCrory on Friday. Board Chairman John Lassiter told the chamber's Metro Chapter Wednesday that the document will provide a roadmap for the new privatized economic development agency the state is creating. Lassiter didn't detail the particulars of the plan, but said in general it will cover a range of issues the state confronts in trying to grow more industry and jobs.

For one thing, he said the board studied areas where the state could better capitalize on areas where it already shows some strength. For instance, he said, the state is one of the nation's leading producers of plastics, but has a dearth of related chemical companies. It is among the largest sweet potato growers, but has few processing plants, he said.

"We think we've got a roadmap to recovery," he said.

The new plan will guide the nonprofit Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, which sometime this year is expected to assume the N.C. Department of Commerce's job of marketing the state to companies and recruiting new jobs and industry. Earlier this month, Triangle-area business executive Dick Lindenmuth was appointed to lead the new agency.

"A lot of things have to take place over the next six months, but I think we'll be totally operational by about June or July," he told reporters before his speech.

Charlotte's economic future hinges on minority influx, chamber head says

Charlotte Chamber President Bob Morgan told a group of tax and accounting professionals this morning that the Queen City has come out of the recession poised for strong economic and population growth. Speaking to the Dixon Hughes Goodman accounting firm's annual Executive Tax Briefing event at the Ritz Carlton, Morgan said the city was the fastest-growing urbanized area in the nation during the first decade of the 21st century. The county's population hit 1 million earlier this year, and he said projections call for the metropolitan area to hit 4.8 million people by 2030.

Morgan attributed the growth to several factors: the continued migration of people from the Northeast to the South and West, hurricane-weary ex-Northerners who want to leave Florida but don't want a full return to the snowy North, greater numbers of young people heading to Charlotte, and the reverse migration of African Americans to the South. He pointed to a report by Black Enterprise magazine that suggested Dallas, Atlanta and Charlotte are their top three destinations.

Bob Morgan (left) with Dixon Hughes Goodman regional managing partner Matt Snow

He put up a chart showing that while Charlotte grew by 32 percent in the first decade of the new century, the white population grew by 14 percent, compared to almost 50 percent growth in the African American population.

"We talk a lot at the chamber about the importance of diversity. Not only do we think it's the right thing to do, but we think there's a business case to be made in numbers like this," he said. "The trends of diversity are only going to increase as we go forward, and for us in the Chamber of Commerce that purports to represent this marketplace, if we don't understand and relate to this growing diversity, we're not going to be relevant at some point in the future."

He added that growth brings the kind of scale -- and workforce -- necessary to attract big companies like Siemens, the turbine engine manufacturer with a large and growing Charlotte operation off Westinghouse Boulevard. While few local officials are talking much about the city's effort to win Boeing's planned new 777X aircraft plant, Morgan said the success a big manufacturer like Siemens has enjoyed in Charlotte certainly wouldn't hurt the city's case.

"As we go about pitching Charlotte to companies like Boeing, you can be sure that the Siemens story will be a key part of what we talk about."

Charlotte job-recruiters heading to Germany

On Friday, a delegation representing Charlotte’s business sector is scheduled to fly to Germany on a job-recruitment trip.

Their goal: to bring more companies and more jobs to Charlotte. They’ve got meetings scheduled with 10 German companies during their four-day stay, hoping to convince them to set up shop in the Queen City.

Sven Gerzer, a vice president for economic development with the Charlotte Chamber, summed up the objective in two words: “Plant seeds.”

You could say they’re playing to Charlotte’s strength. Some 127 German companies already have operations in Charlotte, according to chamber statistics for 2012. That makes Germany by far the country with the biggest business presence in Charlotte. (The United Kingdom ranks No. 2 with 84 firms).

Gerzer, a native of Munich, will be a key salesman for Charlotte. He speaks German and understands the culture, having grown up there. But he also knows the Carolinas. He graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees in international studies from the University of South Carolina's highly touted program. (He chose the university after his parents said he could go anywhere in the world for college – but he’d be helping to pay for it, he recalled with a chuckle).

His personal story might prove persuasive to German business leaders. He enjoys life here in the Carolinas that he has no desire to return to Germany. “I love it here,” he says. “It makes my job (selling the city to companies) easier because I believe what I tell them.”