Regional Report Charlotte February 2013

REGIONALREPORT Charlotte

Apple juice

Apple Inc. amped up the fuel-cell operation at its Maiden data center from 4.8 to 10 megawatts. The expansion, scheduled to be completed in January, gives the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant two of the nation’s largest renewable-energy installations, both in Catawba County.

Briefs

CHARLOTTE — Belk will add 150 workers to the roughly 1,000 at its headquarters here to help with online commerce and information technology. The department-store chain will lease additional space nearby to accommodate the growth.

SALISBURY — Gildan Activewear will open a yarn-manufacturing plant here, investing $50 million and creating about 170 jobs within two years. The Montreal-based apparel manufacturer employs 394 at a distribution center in Eden and a yarn-spinning plant in Clarkton.

CHARLOTTE — Bank of America will pay Washington, D.C.-based Fannie Mae nearly $10.4 billion to settle claims it misrepresented the quality of loans it sold to the mortgage lender. The bank will pay Fannie Mae $3.6 billion in cash and repurchase nearly $6.8 billion in mortgage loans. The loans were sold between 2000 and 2008 by Countrywide Financial, which BofA bought in 2008.

LINCOLNTON — TENOWO will expand its plant, investing $7.2 million and adding 26 to its workforce of 67 within three years. The company, founded here as HOF Textiles in 1992 but now a subsidiary of Germany-based eswegee Vliesstoff, makes textiles for the automobile and apparel industries. Average annual wages will be $32,538, higher than Lincoln County’s average of $31,252.

CHARLOTTE — Ridgemont Equity Partners acquired Houston-based J.A.M. Distributing, a distributor of fuel, lubricant and other products, for an undisclosed amount. Bank of America spun off the private-equity firm in 2010.

CHARLOTTE — Human-resources company Infinisource will acquire Qqest, a local company that provides time and attendance software, for an undisclosed amount. Infinisource moved here last year from Coldwater, Mich., and focuses on small to mid-market businesses.

STATESVILLE — Paumac Tubing will open a 75,000-square-foot plant, investing $3 million and creating 75 jobs. The Marysville, Mich.-based company, which fabricates steel, stainless steel and aluminum tubing, plans to have
the plant fully operational by the second quarter. 

CHARLOTTE — Chiquita Brands International named Brian W. Kocher chief operating officer, a new position. He had been chief financial officer. The banana giant had not named a replacement for him by mid-January.

CHARLOTTE — Tampa-based real-estate investment company Elco Landmark Residential and Toronto-based Timbercreek Asset Management purchased a 476-unit apartment complex here and a 250-unit one in Chapel Hill as part of a $95.4 million deal in which they also acquired two out-of-state complexes from Birmingham, Ala.-based Colonial Properties Trust.