Business Climate
 The Business Climate: The Charlotte area prides itself on its supportive business attitude and the vital, growing firms that benefit from it. In return, businesses and the services that support them have helped shape the city and the region into an area with a strong and diverse economy, high-quality expanding workforce, solid technical, educational and transportation resources, and vibrant communities and diverse lifestyles. Finance is a major player here. With $855.5 billion in assets, Charlotte is second only to New York City. Two of the largest banks in the nation are headquartered in Charlotte: Bank of America Corp., ranked first, and First Union, ranked sixth largest nationally. The two institutions have branches throughout the nation and provide specialty banking services worldwide. Uptown´s skyline has been influenced by these and other banks, whose growth is reflected in skyscrapers such as Bank of America Corporate Center, Wachovia Center, and One (and Two and Three) First Union Center. Distribution plays another important role in Charlotte´s economy. The Charlotte region is the nation´s fifth largest in terms of trade and distribution, thanks to its location and its exceptional transportation network. If you flew in for a job interview or a house-hunting trip, you´ve already seen Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, the nation´s 23rd busiest in terms of total operations. The facility, on the city´s west side, averages nearly 500 flights daily and moves more than 209,000 tons of cargo each year. Now for international business: According to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, nearly 400 foreign-owned companies do business in Charlotte. Of the North Carolina firms on the 2000 Fortune 500 list of industrial and service companies, Charlotte is home to seven: Bank of America, B.F. Goodrich, Duke Energy, Nucor Corp., Sonic Automotive, SPX Corp. and Wachovia.. The area is home to operations for almost 200 industrial companies and more than 100 service industries listed on the Fortune 500 . In 1999, more than 8900 firms came to Charlotte employing more than 9,000 people. Just want to look us over - the Greater Charlotte Hospitality and Tourism Alliance estimates that tourism, much of it business related ? brings more than $2 billion annually to the area, supporting more than 40,000 jobs. |
