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Bits & Briefs

Business Today's 6th Annual Champagne Reception Oct. 6 for Women in Business

A power networking session and champagne reception will be held Oct. 6 at The Peninsula Club in Cornelius in honor of Business Today’s 2010 Top Women Business Leaders. The sixth annual event recognizes the contribution of women in business in the Golden Crescent. Former winners include Realtors Abigail Jennings, of Lake Norman Realty, and Diane Honeycutt, of Team Honeycutt in Concord; Pat Horton, president of Cabarrus Bank & Trust; Robin Smith of Lake Norman Chrysler Jeep Dodge; Dakeita Vanderburg Johnson, CEO of Southgate Masonry & Lumber in Concord; and Ginger Griffin of Ginger Griffin Marketing and Design in Cornelius. Business Today columnist and UNCC instructor Cheryl Kane will conduct the power networking sessions, after which the 2010 winners will receive their awards, complete with champagne toasts. The event, which starts at 6 p.m., is $12.50 to attend, Visa and MasterCard accepted at time of reservation. More info: Phone BusinessToday at 704-895-1335 or email nebiztoday@gmail.com for more information. Registration opens at 5:30 p.m.

Heart Group merges with Sanger Institute

Heart Group of the Carolinas, with offices in Concord and Albemarle, has merged with Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute. The practice will now begin operating under the Sanger name.

Denver Business Association luncheon set for Sept. 16

More than 100 Denver area business owners will meet at Verdict Ridge Golf Club Sept. 16  from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the annual Denver Area Business Association networking luncheon.  Non-members are invited to attend the event which will honor long-time Denver business leader Joe Turbyfill and his wife Jean. Michael Thompson, director of corporate communications for the Charlotte Bobcats, will discuss overcoming adversity in the business world. The cost is $17 for pre-registration at www.dabanc.org or $20 at the door. More info: Denis Bilodeau, dbilodeau@aquestainsurance.com

NC DOT official addressing LKN business leaders Friday

Jim Trogdon, the chief operating officer for NC DOT, will be the featured speaker at a Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday at NorthStone Country Club.  Trogdon will discuss local road improvements including HOT lanes, commuter rail and the diverging diamond interchange planned at Exit 28 on I-77 in Cornelius. Tickets are $16 for members and $20 for non-members. More info: 704-892-1922.

RCCC receives $2.6 million in grants

During its 2009-2010 fiscal year, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College was awarded $2.654 million in grant funding from public and private organizations. From July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, the 21 grant awards produced a single-year grant-funding record for the college. Funded projects include scholarships for students with financial need, a major updating of RCCC’s IT infrastructure, the JobsNOW certificate programs, initiatives to develop new curriculum, and programs to help students quit smoking and assist local citizens adversely impacted by changes in the tobacco industry.The funding agencies include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Margaret C. Woodson Foundation, the Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation, the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund, the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund, the North Carolina Community College System, the Proctor Foundation, and the N.C. BioNetwork.

Small Business Toolbox

How to evaluate an event planner
LAWRENCE

What does a professional planner really do to help clients?

Let’s say you want to hold a customer appreciation event but you want it to be more than just a party. Your company’s reputation is on the line. You have to make a decision whether to leave this important function to a professional or to unskilled hands? In this case, a planner can be a valuable asset
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Savvy Business Owner —

August edition
DeMAO

In the last of this three part series, Sherre explains how reviewing your current involvements can help you achieve your goals through putting you in direct contact with your ideal target market, in direct contact with those who could refer you to your ideal target market, or to help you gain needed support or resources for growing your business.
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Boost Your Sales:

Effective questioning combats centuries-old selling problem

Since the dawn of mankind we have been buying and selling “stuff”, and over the centuries a predictable pattern has developed between buyers and sellers. The buyer-seller dynamic can spell “commission catastrophe” for the sales professional who lacks the artful skill of effective questioning.
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Commercial lease rates: Off 20 percent from last year

Golden Crescent is stronger than much of the rest of the country
Medical Mobilities has leased the old PSNC building on Church Street. It had been vacant for years. The tenant can purchase the building for $1.05 million in the next two years.

The “coming wave” of commercial real estate defaults will affect the national economy, with office condos, office buildings and even malls going into the tank. Everybody’s talking about it, but will it happen here? Or, is it a case of the national media pushing too hard on a vulnerable subject?

There is indeed a Congressional Oversight Panel focusing on corporate and commercial real estate lending and how toxic loans could affect the financial system and the economy. Some international banking analysts are saying the extent of the toxicity is on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars. It will take years to work them out.

Is the Golden Crescent commercial real estate market in terrible shape? Probably not, according to local brokers. While the market is weaker than last year, the leasing business is suddenly brisk, with considerable activity in the past month.

Sales are another matter. Tighter lending rules for anything other than owner occupied properties has largely staunched sales activity. Sales levels are as low as anytime during the past 25 years, says Tom McMahon, managing director of Sperry Van Ness/McMahon & Associates in Cornelius.

 
McMAHON

“Leasing activity is back to a pace that we were doing prior to the slowdown last year. Our leasing activity is extremely strong right now. With that being said, landlords are making concessions, rates are trending lower, but people are occupying space and that’s what’s important,” McMahon says.

This is a good time for small business owners to evaluate their space needs and look for potentially more economical space and larger spaces at the same price. After all, that’s what the big guys are doing.

The question is whether we’re at the bottom, months away, or, perhaps, in a trough that will linger for months on into years requiring a more thorough restructuring of the financial system.

 
GAITHER

Agreeing that business is picking up, broker Bill Gaither at Newport Properties in Mooresville, says tenants seem less likely to make a long-term commitment. “From my perspective, there is continuing weakness in the retail and office sectors. Lease rates seem to be firming, as lack of funding has virtually eliminated new product in the market, but lease terms are getting shorter,” Gaither says. Industrial andflex space is gaining some traction.

Jerry Furr, a broker with NAI Southern Real Estate in Mooresville, says the market has indeed bottomed out and, at the very least, stabilized.

But there is a long way to go before he will call this a good market. “There has to be a demand for goods and products which will bring the jobs back, which in turn will create a need for offices and warehouse; for people to work in and store the goods and products.  I don’t see that part of the economy coming back for possibly a year or longer,” Furr says.

 
FURR

Still, his phone has been ringing more consistently in recent weeks.  Customers and clients are looking for the best lease rate and sales price knowing that there is a lot of inventory on the market. “So I believe rates may continue to come down for a while until the absorption time of the available space becomes much less,” Furr states, explaining that he often urges landlords to keep cutting prices until the space moves.

In Cabarrus County

Broker Carter Critz with Weichert Properties/Craven Commercial said he is seeing an upswing in owner-occupied office properties in Concord.

CRITZ

He scored a major coup in the leasing, with an option to buy, of the old PSNC building at the intersection of Davidson Drive and Church Street on the west side of Concord. The 15,000 square foot building has sat empty for years, after PSNC moved to space on Concord Parkway. The building was gussied up—red stripe and all—to be a First Charter office, but First Charter went ahead and built a landmark office building a block away, right at the northern gateway to Church Street, only to be acquired by Fifth Third.

The building, which is owned by C.M. Black Construction, rented for $4.80 per square foot modified gross lease. Tenant Medical Mobilities has an option to purchase the distinctive property at $1.05 million in the next two years.

“I am getting a lot of leasing calls in general and many of those are interested in lease/option scenarios,” Critz says. “I am also seeing that landlords would rather fill a vacancy at a discount to a financially strong tenant as opposed to holding out for a higher rate and ending up with a tenant that won’t pay rent.”

 
RINKER

All in all, the commercial market in Cabarrus County shows signs of stabilizing. Activity continues to improve in the retail and industrial flex space markets. Leases have been signed for small office space as well. Rates for lease properties continue to be more negotiable and concessions for the right tenant are being offered, according Bill Rinker, owner of Rinker Commercial Properties based in Concord.

“Overall, the commercial market is looking toward improvement as the year progresses,” Rinker said.

 

 

A commercial sampler: Recent leases and sales

Concord
Tenant: Radio Free Cabarrus, broadcasting
Location: 310 Church St. N., Hidden Plaza
Size: 1,000 square feet, office space
Broker: Bill Rinker, Rinker Commercial Properties

Tenant: Medical Mobilities, electric scooters to elderly/disabled
Location: 809 Church St.
Size: 15,000 square foot, office/retail property, $4.80SF modified gross lease, option to purchase at $1.05 million in next two years
Broker: Carter Critz, Weichert Realtors/Craven Commercial

Tenant: Harvest Home Healthcare
Location: 919 Union St. S, Downtown
Size: 700 square feet, office space
Broker: Bill Rinker, Rinker Commercial Properties

Tenant:  O’Dalys Bakery
Location: Parkway Plaza, 1096 Concord Pkwy
Size: 2,400 square feet, retail space, $10 square foot base rent plus $2.50SF for CAM on a NNN lease, five years
Broker: Carter Critz, Weichert Realtors/Craven Commercial

Tenant: Crowson Law Firm
Location:109 Church St.
Size: 1,364 square feet, offices, $13.20 per square foot
Broker: Ed McAfee, Locus Real Estate Advisors (dual agent)

Tenant: Certified Nursing Assistant, training
Location: Lorenz Architecture Building, Cabarrus Avenue
Size: 1,000 square feet, $12 per square foot
Brokers: Leasing, Ed McAfee, Locus Real Estate Advisors; Listing, Zac Moretz, Locus

Cornelius
Tenant: Sinister Skate Shop / Skate Shop
Location: Shops On The Green 20930 Torrence Chapel Road
Size: 1222 square feet, retail lease
Listing Agent: Melissa Winter, Newport Properties Commercial Division

Tenant: Green Star Home Loans
Location: Suite 202 Johnsbury Square, West Catawba Ave.
Size: 2,300 square feet, offices
Brokers: Tom McMahon and Tim Caryl, Sperry Van Ness/McMahon & Associates

Tenant: Capital Creek Development
Location: Suite #201 Johnsbury Square, West Catawba Ave.
Size: 2000 square feet, offices
Brokers: Tim Caryl and Tom McMahon, Sperry Van Ness/McMahon & Associates

Tenant: Scardaci Construction
Location: Lakeshore Marketplace, West Catawba Avenue
Size: 1,000 square feet, $15.06 per square foot
Brokers: Leasing: Ed McAfee, Locus Real Estate Advisors; Listing, Sergio Solano, Allen Tate

Davidson
Tenant: Christopher Kemp, CPA
Location: South Main Square, Main Street Davidson
Size: 1,485 square feet
Broker: Rose & Assoc. Southeast Inc.

Kannapolis
Tenant: Brent F. King, attorney
Location: ReMax Gold Plaza
Size: Key man office, $595 a month
Broker: Ed McAfee, Locus Realty Advisors

Mooresville
Buyer: IOMAX, a computer consulting and technology company
Location: Top floor of RiverPark Bulding
Size: 5,500 square feet, corporate headquarters for southeast.
Brokers: Listing agent, Carrie Taylor, ReMax; selling agent, Tami Little of SouthMark Properties

Tenant: Michael York Appraisal Co.
Location: Brawley Commons Shopping Center, 631-504 Brawley School Rd, e
Size: 620 square feet, offices
Brokers: Tom McMahon / Tim Caryl, Sperry Van Ness/McMahon & Associates

Tenant: Short Fry Grill
Location: Parkway Plaza , 694 Brawley School Rd Parkway Plaza Suites B&C
Size: 3,000 square feet, restaurant
Brokers: Tom McMahon / Tim Caryl, Sperry Van Ness/McMahon & Associates

Tenant: Jeff Hammond, retail store
Location: 144 Talbert, in Talbert Point Business Park
Size: 3,800 square feet
Broker: Bill Gaither, Newport Properties Commercial Division
Opinion

Our regional recovery
RUSSELL

By Bill Russell
Wouldn’t it be nice to pick up a paper and read only pleasant headlines for a change?  The news in Washington this week is that we have retired the national debt, unemployment in North Carolina has sunk to it’s lowest levels since 2006, and a group hug broke out in the streets of Baghdad.

Unfortunately that’s not the headlines we read.  According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the annual difference between what our federal government collects in tax revenue and what it spends will be $1.3 trillion this fiscal year alone. Combat troops are leaving Iraq, however, we are still a stretch from a tension free region.   Closer to home, North Carolina’s unemployment rate dipped to 9.6 percent in July and has declined for five consecutive months but still remains higher than the national average of 9.5 percent.
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North Line: Does it make any sense, really?
GILROY

Many of us were chilled to the bone a few weeks ago at what Charlotte City Councilman David Howard said at a Lake Norman Transportation Commission meeting. Howard, a Democrat who has focused on inner city affordable housing issues through his position as vice president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership since 1997, was quoted several times:
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Hot Properties

High-end home sales run the gamut

in LKN; growing supply in Cabarrus

It’s a mixed bag in the luxury market. Some homes are closing at steep discounts, while some pristine homes in superb locations are closing near their asking prices.

Prices per square foot edged upward about 1 percent in Lake Norman during the second quarter vs. 2009 levels, but realized values are still off 20 percent to 25 percent compared to 2007 levels, according to Reed Jackson of Ivester Jackson Distinctive Properties in Cornelius.
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On the Record

Homes sales —

August 2010 edition

These home sales and property transactions in the Golden Crescent were recorded by the Register of Deeds in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Iredell.
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New corporations —

August 2010 edition

These new businesses in the Golden Crescent have registered with the N.C. Secretary of State.
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