Rob Horton, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Charlotte Regional Business Alliance
In an interview with Invest:, Rob Horton, chief marketing and communications officer of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, discussed the region’s economic milestones, including job creation and capital investment. He highlighted efforts to grow the economy, attract advanced manufacturing, and secure foreign direct investment.
What are some of the most significant milestones and achievements for the Alliance over the past year?
As the voice of business for the region, encompassing 14 counties and the city of Charlotte, we primarily focus on three main objectives as an organization. One significant goal is to grow the economy. To illustrate, the region announced nearly 5,500 job opportunities last year, alongside a $4 billion capital investment. From the perspective of economic growth, we are quite satisfied with these results.
However, it’s interesting to note a trend in these numbers: a higher investment in capital with fewer jobs. This shift can be partially attributed to the nature of some of last year’s announcements. For example, data centers, which traditionally require a high capital investment but create fewer jobs, were among the projects announced. Additionally, there’s a growing trend of companies investing more in automation and tools that reduce the need for labor to achieve the desired output.
The region is strong in advanced manufacturing and has attracted significant foreign investment, particularly from countries like Germany, Italy, and Great Britain, highlighting our global appeal.
How does the Alliance support and facilitate growth across the industries it targets?
Our business recruitment is focused on two main roles. The first is marketing the Charlotte region, using advertising in key markets like New York, New Jersey, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco. These areas have high costs for labor and business operations, making Charlotte a more attractive option for companies.
We begin by targeting corporate leaders and the site selection community to promote our region. The second role involves generating leads to turn interest into actual projects. We track these from general interest to qualified projects, ensuring a robust pipeline.
When a company chooses our region, we guide the project until it narrows down to a few locations, and then local partners take over. This method supports the region’s economic growth by outlining our role in attracting and facilitating new business ventures.
What initiatives has the Alliance implemented to ensure inclusivity and equity in its economic development efforts?
As we evaluate the leads coming into the region, we prioritize projects that are beneficial to the community. This means focusing on projects that offer a living wage and require a diverse set of skills, ensuring that employment opportunities are accessible to individuals without a four-year degree. Additionally, there is a strong commitment to promoting equity and diversity within the region, ensuring that our economic development efforts are inclusive.
How does the Alliance support workforce development through educational initiatives?
We are entering the second year of our Intern CLT program, a summer initiative designed for interns in the region. The program aims to connect interns with the community several times throughout their summer experience, introducing them to Charlotte and encouraging them to consider making the city their home after graduation. For residents, we offer two programs focused on talent development.
The first is our Young Professionals program, targeted at individuals in their 20s and 30s at the beginning of their careers, looking to network and learn more about the city. This program runs year-round. The second is our Emerging Business Leaders program, which caters to mid-career professionals identified by their organizations as having leadership potential. This year, we have around 60 participants in the EBL program, which aims to expose them to Charlotte’s business ecosystem and discuss topics relevant to their careers and leadership roles in the city.
Given the current economic challenges, how is the Charlotte region positioned to navigate any headwinds?
Charlotte is in a uniquely advantageous position, primarily due to being a “brain gain” market. Last year, for instance, we saw an average of 113 people moving to Charlotte daily, with the majority being of prime working age. This is a significant factor, as it contrasts with other markets like Miami, which may see higher numbers but don’t necessarily have the same influx of individuals in the prime working age group. Our region gains a substantial portion of the workforce daily, which is a strong point for us in the Southeast.
However, this doesn’t mean workforce challenges are nonexistent. The focus shifts more towards attracting talent rather than retaining and developing it. From our investors’ perspective, access to talented individuals is paramount. Once talent arrives, Charlotte’s excellent quality of life and relatively low cost of living play a crucial role in retention. The likelihood of keeping someone once they’ve settled in is quite high, especially in industries where we have a strong presence, such as financial services, logistics, distribution, and advanced manufacturing. There are abundant opportunities within the region for individuals to advance their careers while settling down or pursuing their life choices.
What advocacy and legislative priorities is the Alliance currently pursuing?
Our legislative priorities aim to manage regional growth and uphold a business-friendly environment. Infrastructure and transportation are key focuses, crucial for accommodating a projected 40% population increase by 2050. We’re exploring diverse mobility solutions to handle this influx.
Affordable housing, especially for the workforce, is another priority to ensure our region remains livable. We advocate for legislation supporting affordable housing to attract and retain talent. Additionally, we push for improved accessibility and affordability of childcare for working parents.
To attract and retain talent, we emphasize expanding training opportunities, including apprenticeships and vocational programs, along with enhancing K-12 and higher education. These priorities align with economic development goals and have garnered support from policymakers and the business community.
What are the Alliance’s main priorities and goals for the next few years, and how do you view the region’s prospects?
We remain optimistic about the region’s future. The momentum we’ve built up is substantial, and we anticipate it will continue unabated. One interesting trend is the shift in population growth towards the ring counties around Mecklenburg rather than Mecklenburg County itself. While Mecklenburg is still growing, the surrounding counties are expanding at a faster rate. This shift underscores the increasing importance of developing effective mobility solutions, as more people living in these counties will need to commute to Mecklenburg, which will remain the primary employment hub. Despite this distribution, Mecklenburg is expected to house 50% of the jobs while holding 38% of the population, highlighting a significant commuting pattern into the county for work.
We expect that the region will continue to outpace national growth trends. A noteworthy development has been the rise in labor force participation, from 63.6% to 64.8%, coupled with an unemployment rate that remains below the national average — 3.2% in our region versus 3.7% nationally.
Another exciting area of growth is the electric vehicle (EV) and related industries. The Southeast, including our region, has become a hub for EV companies. For instance, last year, we welcomed Alpitronic, an Italian EV charger manufacturer, which decided to locate its US headquarters and R&D center in Charlotte. The company specializes in producing EV chargers, showcasing the diversification of opportunities emerging in the EV sector for our local workforce. This development not only adds to our economic diversity but also positions us at the forefront of the evolving EV industry, promising new opportunities for the community.
