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Business owners are encouraged to share ideas of potential changes to Cabarrus County regulations during three "listening" sessions this month. The goal is to identify regulatory changes that may help increase employment and job growth. Organized by the Cabarrus County Council for a Sustainable Local Economy recommendations will be forwarded to the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners. The three forums all start at 6:30 pm: Feb. 16, Kannapolis Train Station, 201 S. Main Street, Kannapolis; Feb. 23, Vintage Motorclub, 325 McGill Avenue, Concord; Feb. 28, Buddy’s Restaurant, 1470 S. Main Street, Mt. Pleasant. Comments may be emailed to regulatory@cabarruscounty.us. The Cabarrus County Council for a Sustainable Local Economy was established by the Cabarrus Board of County Commissioners and charged with performing research and analysis, educating the community, developing strategies and making policy recommendations that encourages entrepreneurship and supports local, independently owned businesses. More info: Shannon Johnson, 704-920-2181. |
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Feb. 2 Hendrick Automotive Group has purchased Tim Marburger Dodge Chrysler Jeep in Concord for an undisclosed amount. Wes Watkins is the executive manager of the dealership which has been renamed Hendrick Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Concord. |
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| Jan. 27 The cost to live in an authentic French chateau will now set you back $5.9 million, not $8 million. The luxurious lakefront home in Mooresville, built by the former owner of Boyles Furniture for upwards of $22 million, is listed by Debbie Monroe and Amber Garchar of Lake Norman Realty. Like a lot of homes in all price ranges, this one is bank-owned. To see the brochure, click here. |
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Jan. 25 A "Hiring Our Heroes Job Fair," designed to help military personnel adjust to civilian life, will be Feb. 13 from 9 a.m. to noon at Embassy Suites in Concord. |
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Jan. 25 Karen Bentley, a business-friendly representative on the Meck County Board, will run again. |
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Jan. 24 John Bradford, the owner of Park Avenue Properties in Cornelius, has been named business person of the year by the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce.
Bradford, who is also a member of the town board in Cornelius, received the award at the chamber’s annual dinner last week. Matthew Hayes, principal at North Mecklenburg High School, received the Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award , while David F. Peete, the principal planner for Huntersville, was named volunteer of the Year.
The new chairman of the chamber, Jack Salzman, president of Lake Norman Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, said the chamber would focus on “customer relations” with members and former members to ensure that all see value in their membership. Emphasizing that the chamber’s board of directors would “not be a puppet board,” Salzman stated: “In every thing we do as a board our focus must be always to benefit our community where we live, work and play.”
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| ANERALLA |
Jan. 21 N.C. Senate hopeful John Aneralla, a conservative Republican who has lined up endorsements from Cornelius Town Commissioners Lynette Rinker, Chuck Travis and Dave Gilroy, reports that he has $30,000 in his campaign treasury.
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Jan. 21 The Town of Cornelius will host a special meeting 9 am Wednesday, Feb. 8 in the Community Room of Town Hall to hear an analysis of the Red Line by a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank in Raleigh. Randal O’Toole will discuss the business/finance plan behind the proposed 25-mile freight-commuter line between Mooresville and Charlotte.
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A business plan competition sponsored by the Centralina Workforce Development Board, Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce, Iredell County, Mitchell Community College, Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce, Mountain State University, the Small Business Center and the Small Business and Technology Development Center is getting under way in Iredell County. Meetings will be held in the Continuing Education Center Auditorium at 701 W. Front Street in Statesville. There will be hands-on workshops for participants to develop and assemble a complete business plan. More info: Suzanne Wallace 704-878-3227
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The Lake Norman Chamber will host a presentation on the Red Line by the consultants from Parsons Brinkerhoff and Jeff Hare, Cornelius Commissioner and chairman of the Cornelius Red Line Task Force. The session starts at 8 a.m. Jan. 27 on the second floor of the chamber building on West Catawba in Cornelius. |
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Author and motivational speaker, Nathan Jamail, reminds us not every hire is the right hire and not every job is the right job, but accepting a bad decision is wrong — for everyone involved. |
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| DeMAO |
Sherre teaches us the most effective business owners know how to get things done beyond the confines of their minds and their capabilities. As a result, they make more effective decisions and take more effective action when choices need to be made. Make 2012 the year you become a manager of your destiny. |
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| KANE |
Cheryl Kane teches us that time allocation, prioritizing how time is used, and controlling access to your time for specific efforts are all necessary to efficiently and effectively use your most rare and valuable asset: time. |
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Blue Harbor Bank rides out choppy economic waters |
By Dave Yochum
Jim Marshall’s original plan at Blue Harbor Bank was to break even sometime after the bank’s second year of operation. The president and CEO of the start-up Mooresville bank says that’s still the plan, despite the current economy.
“We actually see the glass as half full,” he said, explaining that the bank is not saddled with bad loans of any sort. “So therefore we’re out there building some nice solid relationships while other banks are focused on some of those problem loans,” Marshall said.
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| Harbor in a storm: Jim Marshall is CEO of Blue Harbor Bank, based in Mooresville |
Banks are dealing with not just an anemic economy, but lower interest rates. Lower rates tighten net interest margins for one thing. For another, they mean bankers are getting paid less on their invested short-term cash, a key profit center for a new bank.
For the first quarter of this year, Blue Harbor lost $698,000, according to routine call reports filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The bank lost $1.86 million during its first year of operation, for a cumulative loss of $2.56 million. Assets, however, were a strong $73 million at the end of the first quarter.
But losses include more than $837,000 in loan loss provisions, an accounting procedure that occurs on paper, not in reality. Moreover, the bank did not apply for any funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
As a general rule for a new bank, investors expect losses during the first couple of years, a large portion of which is the “provision for loan losses.” New banks set aside money in case loans go bad, even if they don’t have non-performing assets.
The bank is “putting on good assets, building solid relationships. When rates return to [higher levels], we think our profitability will be fine and on track,” he said. “What we’re trying to prevent right now is making any mistakes on the lending side,” the affable banker said.
Blue Harbor has opened a second branch, in Huntersville, adding expenses—and more opportunity for growth. He said the Exit 23 area is dynamic, and ripe for the picking. With a minimum of remodeling expense, Blue Harbor turned a former Wachovia branch into a more living room like Blue Harbor branch complete with coffee and local publications. The Wachovia branch had $100 million in deposits before it was shuttered and relocated to the other side of Interstate 77.
“The runway in front of us is tremendous,” he said, comparing Huntersville to the fast-growth Mooresville marketplace.
Marshall said consumer and commercial loans are up 43 percent compared to year-end 2008 levels, with consumers accounting for about one third of the growth and business two-thirds.
“From an assets standpoint we’re on track, from an earnings standpoint, with the lower interest rates, the margins are lower than we forecast,” Marshall said.
He would not discuss future locations, saying the bank is “digesting what we have between Huntersville and Mooresville,” where the bank has a temporary building and no plans right now to break ground on a headquarters building.
In fact, that’s sort of like money in the bank. The land Blue Harbor purchased in Morrison Plantation is now more valuable, even as first-class office space sits empty up and down nearby Williamson Road. “We can sell the property for more than we paid for it,” Marshall said. |
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Guest
Opinion
MARY HOPPER
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By Mary Hopper
The University Research Park (URP) remains a bright spot in office activity in the Northeast submarket. Located at Harris Boulevard and I-85, the 2000-acre park has a 45-year history of fostering cutting edge technology dating back to its early days when IBM was making ATMs there and Verbatim was producing floppy discs. Its growth came in spurts over the years, with First Union’s CIC complex and TIAA CREF as two of its past wins.
The latest uptick began in 2008 when SPEED renovated a former Verbatim building to become home to a state of the art, all-digital TV network. The motorsports channel now reaches 84 million homes in North America with additional worldwide distribution. The pace continued with David Bowles’ 2009 acquisition of the 70,000 square foot Louis Rose building that had housed IBM and then First Union Mortgage. Bowles used his skills to create Environmental Way as one of the region’s first LEED Platinum buildings and a workplace laboratory of sustainable systems and design. |
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| Mooresville: This home on Easton Dr. in Mooresville sold for $880,000 |
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In Mooresville
A house at 171 Easton Drive in The Point has sold for $880,000 after being listed by Doris Nash of Ivester Jackson Distinctive Properties at $929,900 two months ago.
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By Dave Yochum
New statistics from the N.C. Secretary of State indicate North Carolinians gave less to charity in 2011 than 2010. However, the same report also indicates people supported the non-profits that got better returns.
The Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division Annual Report says that charities licensed by the state collected $26.7 million from North Carolinians during the 12-month period.
The 2010-2011 report shows that of the money collected, $13.2 million went directly to the charities for which the fund-raising campaigns were being conducted. That’s a 49.46 percent return to the charities for each dollar donated. |
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