Business owners from the battlefields
Plus: Ledger debuts paid subscriptions; CMS downsizes high school plans; Affordable housing plan stalled; Last hot dog for 'Chili Man'
Good morning! Today is Wednesday, February 26, 2020. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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New nonprofit helps veterans in Charlotte navigate the minefields of starting a business; drawing on ‘common bond’
A national nonprofit that works to help veterans start businesses is opening a branch in Charlotte this week.
Bunker Labs, which already has chapters in Wilmington and Raleigh-Durham and more than 30 other U.S. cities, is holding a launch party Thursday at Sugar Creek Brewing.
Vets tell the Ledger that after leaving the military, some struggle with finding a sense of purpose. Many feel ill-suited for a 9-to-5 job but lack the skills and contacts to start their own companies. However, they feel a kinship with other veterans. Bunker Labs connects them with each other through networking events and mentoring.
Keeping it simple: After a seven-year career in the navy, UNC Chapel Hill grad Andrew Castrodale, 34, wanted to start a company that made materials used in construction. After linking up with veterans in Washington, he realized the way he was explaining his business concept was too technical for most people. Fellow veterans encouraged him to state it more simply: His company, Nautilus Materials, turns coal waste into concrete.
“Iron sharpens iron, right?” he says. “It’s the same sort of philosophy here. You get reps of what you’re trying to do. People help you think through that and practice how to communicate.” He now lives in Concord and is helping lead the Charlotte chapter.
Nautilus Materials, started by a navy veteran who lives in Concord, turns coal waste into concrete. (Photo courtesy of Nautilus Materials.)
Military presence: Charlotte isn’t always thought of as teeming with veterans. But Bunker Labs leaders say that there are so many military bases in the Carolinas, and the city’s economy is so strong, that many military folks transitioning out of the service head to Charlotte.
Organizers say veterans here are starting all kinds of businesses, from consumer products, construction, fintech — you name it.
Veteran-owned businesses make up more than 12% of finance/insurance jobs nationally — the highest of any field. (Source: Census data via SmallBusiness.com)
After a 25-year navy career that included deep sea diving and special ops, Jon Corkey, 44, wanted to start a medical technology company. But he soon realized he lacked the skills: “No matter what your background is, starting a business is extremely difficult, especially if you do not have a background in business or entrepreneurship.” He got paired up with other veteran entrepreneurs online and today has a company, Amissa, based near UNC Charlotte. It is developing an app for the Apple Watch that helps caregivers track patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
Talking with other veterans has helped his business, he says: “You bounce ideas off each other and share your entrepreneurial experiences. We all have that common bond, and we want to help each other.”
Want to go? The launch of Bunker Labs’ Charlotte chapter is Thursday, 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Sugar Creek Brewing Co. Details here.
CMS downsizes construction plans for new high schools
In a roomful of skeptical parents from around Mecklenburg County, the school board voted Tuesday night to reduce the number of classrooms in new high schools planned in west Charlotte, Steele Creek and south Charlotte. School officials reiterated that they are short of money to finish construction for new schools promised in the 2017 school bonds.
Highlights of the meeting:
The board voted 7-2 to reduce the number of new classrooms at future high schools to 100 instead of the 125 they previously planned. CMS staff members portrayed the reduction as no big deal, because classrooms are more crowded than earlier projections — so the schools would still accommodate 2,500 students each. [updated 2/26/20 at 12:15pm to correct board vote]
CMS staff said they are no closer to identifying a spot for a new south Charlotte high school. CMS construction consultant Dennis LaCaria could not say where it would be: “No options are currently off the table. We are pursuing other options, but we don’t have anything in hand.”
CMS detailed student enrollment figures and projections for south Charlotte. Enrollment at four south Charlotte high schools — Ardrey Kell, Providence, South Meck and Myers Park — now totals 12,165 students, more than the 11,225 students those schools were designed to accommodate. They said the new south Charlotte high school could accommodate the projected growth of students in the next five years even if it has only 100 classrooms. (Of course, student growth projections could be as accurate as school construction projections.)
School officials this summer were eyeing placing the new high school behind Olde Providence Elementary — a story the Ledger broke in August. Then focus shifted to an 80-acre site on Johnston Road near I-485, a site the Ledger first identified in September. This month, the school board said it would like to place the new high school there if the land should become available. The Ledger has reported that the land, owned by the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, is under contract to a developer, but the school board and the county have the option of trying to acquire the land through eminent domain. There was no discussion of specific sites Tuesday.
Nobody at fault: Voters passed $922M of school bonds in 2017 with 73% of voters voting “yes.” Now, though, the district says the money is insufficient. It has started construction on 16 of 29 projects that were part of the bonds.
LaCaria described the blown cost estimates as totally unforeseeable, the result of far higher than expected construction costs and rising land values — and definitely not the fault of anybody with CMS or the county who was in charge of estimating costs just three or four years ago.
“It is something that has happened to this market that is no fault of anyone,” he said. He said rising costs are obvious to “everybody who has tried to do a kitchen renovation in the last year.”
Construction perspective: Officials in the local construction industry have told the Ledger that costs are indeed rising quickly, but that part of the problem with cost overruns is that governments try to forecast costs years ahead, when most contractors won’t guarantee prices for more than 6 or 12 months.
Read more: WFAE’s Ann Helms has a complete run-down of the meeting this morning.
Today’s supporting sponsors are The McIntosh Law Firm/Carolina Revaluation Services…
… and Cardinal Real Estate Partners:
20 parking spaces for 125 apartments? Plan stalls affordable housing project
A plan to build affordable housing in Charlotte’s Seversville neighborhood, northwest of uptown, has hit a roadblock.
Citing inadequate parking and the possibility of a tall building too close to single-family homes, city staff said last week that they cannot support a plan by Grubb Properties to build 125 apartments on 0.7 acres. Half the units would be available to residents who make 80% the area’s median income. Building affordable housing has been a key focus of city planners, elected officials and nonprofit leaders — and developers are starting to oblige.
Not enough parking? But this plan will have to be reworked. The city noted that even though the site between State Street and Katonah Avenue is next to a greenway and a future streetcar stop, “the site plan requests an optional provision to only require a total of 20 parking spaces for 125 apartments.”
Some residents have said the area isn’t quite ready for everybody to go all-in on scooters, walking and bikes.
“I live here, and it’s definitely car-dependent,” said Viltis Palubinskas, who lives in a nearby 1920s bungalow. “This is not a not-in-my-backyard situation. Add a parking garage and everything will be much more palatable.”
She said plans that include affordable housing “seem to hold quite a bit of sway.”
In a statement to the Ledger, Eric Applefield, Grubb’s director of development, said:
We are continuing to work closely with the neighborhood and the city to determine the best way to bring much-needed affordable housing to this area. We’ve offered some creative solutions and remain committed to making 50% of our units affordable for those making 80% or less of the AMI. We have already made some adjustments to the zoning application based on our partnership with the neighborhood, and we look forward to continuing these conversations.
In brief
Show trials ahead: The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled hearings on Wells Fargo on March 10, 11 and 25. “CEO Charlie Scharf will testify at one, and the next day Wells Fargo board members will testify, including the board chair, former Wachovia executive Elizabeth Duke. A third will focus on the impact of the bank’s past high-pressure sales culture on employees.” (Observer)
LendingTree stock plunges: LendingTree stock fell 14% on Tuesday, after the company released 4Q earnings that missed analysts’ projections. It is the stock’s lowest point in more than a year.
A rare ‘no’ to incentives: Truist CEO Kelly King said in an interview that the bank did not consider seeking tax incentives from states before relocating to Charlotte last year. “We have felt, for years and years and years, we do not believe in going to communities and asking them to pay us to come. We believe we come to help the communities be better, not to take from the communities. … It’s a philosophical view of ours that companies really should not be asking communities to pay them to come. … You shouldn’t do that.” (Biz Journal, subscriber-only)
Convenient industrial location: Abacus Capital said it has acquired a 61,000 s.f. industrial building for $4.8M at 1000 Pressley Road, which is 1/3 of a mile from an I-77 interchange, a 10-minute drive to the airport and “1/2 of a mile from the city’s largest and oldest brewery (Olde Mecklenburg Brewery),” according to a news release.
Street vendor retirement: Victor Werany, a Charlotte street vendor known as “Vic the Chili Man,” is retiring after 16 years, he announced on his “Vic the Chili Man” Facebook page. He had started a charity to raise money for children with various illnesses. He said he’s open to offers to sell his business so that somebody else “may carry on his legacy.” (WBTV, Fox 46, Observer)
Programming note: Ledger editor Tony Mecia appears as a guest on 90.7 WFAE at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Thursdays for a discussion of the week’s local business news in the station’s “BizWorthy” segment. Audio and transcripts are also available online.
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The Charlotte Ledger is an e-newsletter and web site publishing timely, informative, and interesting local business news and analysis Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, except holidays and as noted. We strive for fairness and accuracy and will correct all known errors. The content reflects the independent editorial judgment of The Charlotte Ledger. Any advertising, paid marketing, or sponsored content will be clearly labeled.
The Charlotte Ledger is published by Tony Mecia, an award-winning former Charlotte Observer business reporter and editor. He lives in Charlotte with his wife and three children.