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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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Developer plans mixed-use project for vintage West Catawba property |
By Dave Yochum
If developer Kenny Habul builds a three-story mixed-use building on West Catawba Avenue in Cornelius as planned, it’s one more step toward the suburbanization of a town barely a generation away from its farmer roots.
Habul’s 30,000 square foot project at 18615 West Catawba will include restaurant and retail on the first floor and offices on the second and third floors. At 30,000 square feet, Habul’s project will be one of the biggest buildings in Cornelius. It will be called Cornelius One.
The property around it is a symbol of Cornelius’ past, when well-maintained ranch homes and farmhouses dotted West Catawba.
Less than 10 years ago, Habul’s land on West Catawba just to the west of Nantz Road was filled with well-tended scuppernong grape vines. The Nantz family sold the crop bag by bag to locals and strangers. The grape vines are still there.
Now it’s prime property, even in the face of lease signs up and down West Catawba. Habul was to take his project before the Town Board June 1 for rezoning.
And within the next 60 days, the multimillion-dollar widening of West Catawba Avenue will be completed. Moreover, swank Simonini residential development, complete with a dramatic entrance monument, is getting under way just down the road. The Preserve at Robbins Park features 100-plus homes, not on the water, not on the lake, costing upwards of $620,000.
The town’s investment in West Catawba is proving to be transformational for Cornelius, said Town Commissioner Dave Gilroy. “This is our signature gateway corridor and once completed and fully landscaped, will be simply gorgeous. With increasingly distinctive architecture, parking in the rear, and carefully planned traffic routing, this new corridor will take our town to the next level,” he said.
Longer-term, the town plans to widen Catawba on to Sam Furr, favoring business and commercial use, Gilroy said.
In his “50-year vision” for Cornelius, Mayor Jeff Tarte forecasts re-purposing some of the land along Catawba where Lake Norman pushes close by and town-homes were built prior to the run-up in waterfront prices. Tarte envisions town docks, a boardwalk, perhaps, where people from all walks of life can enjoy the lake.
Some single-family houses remain on West Catawba—a classic 1960s-era ranch is now the premises of a fortune teller. Given all the vacancy signs on West Catawba, it could be a bad time to sell. Maybe not. “I’m not convinced there is the amount of space [vacant] there appears to be,” said John Hettwer, vice chairman of the Cornelius Planning Board. “Everybody leaves their signs up. It would be interesting to see what’s really vacant.” |
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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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