My take on Charlotte, Maybe too heavy.

thats my point. 2 cities w/in short distances can be successful.

 

Neither of them are you knuckle head!

 

i'm sorry, with your odd sentence structure, it was hard for me to grasp what you were saying.

dc and baltimore seem to be doing ok- philly and new york are power houses. indianapolis and chicago, what about milwaukee? all these cities are successful.

 

I am done. I wish you all well and I hope I am wrong. Perhaps the economy will turn around. Godd luck to all. Regardless Charlotte is a good family place to live. Nice and quiet.

PS Just for kicks, check out the foreclosures on Million Dollar houses around Charlotte, I think you will be surprised.

 

pray for me stern.

 

I hear ya brother. 6 months out for me. Keep the faith and if you have to move just do it. I have really enjoyed Charlotte but I got a better deal somewhere else. Its hard to feel sentimental when you have a family to feed.


PS Don't get down. Sometimes the jobs you don't get are the ones you probably shouldn't have gotten because you would just be unhappy anyway. I truely believe things work out for a reason. God Speed and Good Luck!

 

classy post man- good luck with your new job in tennessee and hope you dont have to move again.

 

Not to kick a dead horse here. But here is one more of your International Companies in Charlotte going down the tubes. I know people over there so this is not to make fun it is really sad. The worst part is that the German co. was sucking all the profits out of Jones!

J.A. Jones files in bankruptcy court
Company has tried to sell construction firms for past 5 months
CHARLES LUNAN & STAN CHOE
Staff Writers

Starved for cash, J.A. Jones Inc.'s storied construction companies limped into bankruptcy court late Thursday.

J.A. Jones Construction Co., Rea Construction Co. and their parent company J.A. Jones Inc. filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, said Carl Powell, a vice president and chief administrative officer for the Charlotte-based J.A. Jones Inc.

The filing comes after five months of trying to sell off the construction companies, which are building everything from the World War II memorial in Washington to sections of Interstate 77 and Interstate 485 around Charlotte.

Powell confirmed the companies wouldn't meet some payrolls due today, but said he expected creditors to advance them the money in coming days. Employment at J.A. Jones Inc.'s Charlotte locations has already fallen from 1,500 as recently as April to 800.

Founded in 1890, J.A. Jones' projects dominate skylines from Charlotte to Malaysia. In its headquarters city, the company built the 42-story Wachovia tower, the Duke Energy building and the Westin Charlotte hotel uptown.

The J.A. Jones' construction companies' main creditors in the bankruptcy filing are insurance firms that took over their projects when the companies were unable to meet such expenses as payroll and bills from subcontractors.

"We've had continuing difficulties in receiving timely funding from them," Powell said of the insurance firms that bonded their projects. "It's made it difficult for us to continue as an ongoing business."

By filing the petition, which wasn't available Thursday night, the companies hope to buy time with the creditors. J.A. Jones Inc., the holding company for the construction firms and several other businesses, was ranked the world's 14th largest construction contractor with roughly $3 billion in revenue last year. But sales have plummeted because it has been unable to buy the insurance, or bonding, required for many public works projects.

Powell said he expected employees of Rea Construction, which is widening I-77 north of Charlotte and building sections of Interstate 485, to show up for their jobs today.

"That's our hope," he said.

Negotiations continue with companies interested in buying Rea and J.A. Jones Construction as well as three other J.A. Jones Inc. units, Powell said.

J.A. Jones' financial problems stem from its German parent's, Philipp Holzmann AG. The Frankfurt-based company filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2002.

J.P. Buldoc, a Maryland investment banker and J.A. Jones board member for 10 years, became interim president and chief executive in April.

Even before March 2002, the struggling German construction company was siphoning profits from J.A. Jones Inc. to stay afloat, Bolduc said in an earlier interview.

After the German parent filed for bankruptcy protection, at least two bids to acquire J.A. Jones Inc. fell through, one by British giant Balfour Beatty and another from a Saudi bidder who didn't come up with cash in time to meet deadlines set by a German court.

J.A. Jones and German court administrators then decided they would sell the company piecemeal. But that's proved to be difficult.

In the past decade, under Holzmann's instructions, the company began to branch into other construction-related fields. By 2001, it had created a company with nine businesses that did everything from information technology outsourcing to real estate development.

J.A. Jones has already sold two of those businesses and hopes to sell five more and reorganize around two other companies to transform itself into a services company. The surviving entity would rely on Spartanburg-based Lockwood Greene, an engineering services company, and J.A. Jones Services Group Inc. in Charlotte, which builds and maintains everything from homes to power plants and military and industrial factories.

The two have historically been profitable.

Charlotte-area motorists have already begun to feel J.A. Jones' struggles. . Rea Construction says the money woes and heavy rainfall have pushed it behind schedule to widen I-77 to eight lanes between I-85 and the future I-485.

Tight money has kept Rea from hiring enough trucks to haul dirt and asphalt for the $83 million project.


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Beware, the Big Banks of this town would love to be somewhere else, say like, NYC. So they can play with the big boys.

If the Big Banks wanted to be in NYC they would be in NYC.

 

Dudes, its not just Charlotte, this sucky economy is hitting everywhere. The unemployment rate in Davidson County is around 11%, and in Rockingham County its up around 10%. Guildford County is somewhere around 8% I think. Charlotte is doing quite well compared to this area.
I saw some polls where the five major metro areas in the state were ranked in terms of job growth and employment rates. In one, Raleigh was #1, in the second, Wilmington (surprisingly) was #1. Charlotte was #3 in both, with the Triad bringing up the rear in both. Fayettenam was the fourth area in case you were wondering.