Charlotte residents packed a city council meeting this week to rally in support of a pause on data center development.

The Charlotte City Council held a public hearing during a meeting on Tuesday to discuss a proposed 150-day moratorium. The public hearing was a prerequisite to a planned council vote on June 8. 

The hearing comes after several weeks of growing public pushback against proposed data center projects in the city. Dozens of people were protesting outside, many part of activist groups, according to The Charlotte Ledger. Out of the 36 people who spoke up at the hearing, only five did not support a moratorium, the Ledger reported.

Citizens detailed their anxieties about the presence of data centers in the metro area, with some suggesting the centers be completely banned. They cited negative environmental impacts and increased energy costs stemming from what they called excessive water and power requirements.

Charlotte is facing drought conditions and water restrictions. But large data centers can use up to 5 million gallons of water each day, according to The Brookings Institution. 

“We are concerned that the growth of local data centers may overallocate our limited resources and decreases our ability to respond to drought,” resident and Catawba Riverkeeper Brandon Jones said. “Sustainable water management requires careful planning and robust coordination between all users, including data centers.”

Some spoke directly against American Tower Corp.’s proposed data center in east Charlotte, which has seen opposition at every stage. The project would span 40K SF on a site planned off of Hood Road, near Reedy Creek Nature Preserve. The developer delayed its zoning request until June 15.

“The question for me is, how do we build a footprint that makes Charlotte a national leader in distributed, resilient, redundant infrastructure without devouring our land, our water and our power?” said citizen Craig Reynolds, a business executive, whose question was met with applause.

He asked council members to consider the sheer scale of data center projects, which he said can command “eight to 14 times the combined residential power” of a city.

Another local, Tina Shull, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said she is “deeply concerned” about the impacts of the American Tower data center in her neighborhood, as well as the two already approved hyperscale centers in the city.

“This is a request to stop and make a new plan for data centers entirely,” Shull said. “A 150-day moratorium and an environmental impact assessment are the first steps.”

Resident Larry Shaheen, a commercial real estate lawyer at The McIntosh Law Firm, spoke in favor of data centers, saying they provide “a significant amount of tax revenue that is going to go toward funding important needs of the city of Charlotte.” 

He also said the council doesn’t have the authority to cease construction on an already started project or to change certain zoning classifications. His comments drew audible “boos” from the room.

There has been notable backlash against data centers in communities across the U.S. over the last year, including across the Carolinas. Moratoriums in the region are becoming increasingly common, with Durham passing a 60-day moratorium earlier this month, Apex passing a one-year moratorium in April, and Chatham County imposing a one-year moratorium in February. 

Still, there are more than 90 data centers in North Carolina, according to Data Center Map, and 40 in Charlotte, according to WCNC. More are expected as the rapid artificial intelligence boom continues. 

​​The latest corporate relocation to Texas might also be the tastiest.

Fast food chicken chain KFC announced plans last week to move its headquarters from Kentucky to the Metroplex. It came close on the heels of an announcement earlier this month that real estate services website Realtor.com planned to move to Austin, making its home in what it predicts will be the most populous state in the nation within 20 years. 

Relocations to the Lone Star State have cooled since the turn of the decade when dozens upon dozens of companies stampeded to open headquarters there. And states like Georgia and the Carolinas are increasingly coming for its title.

But 2024 was the first year since 2021 that Texas corporate relos inched up, and site selection experts say 2025 is already setting up to come in hot.

Texas saw its number of corporate relocations inch up from 2023 to 2024.

After a year of uncertainty surrounding the presidential election and capital markets, JLL Managing Director Torrey Littlejohn said KFC and Realtor.com’s arrival could be the beginning of a fresh wave of relocations to Texas. 

“You can’t push pause forever, and so what we’re seeing right now is a lot of people have pushed play,” said Littlejohn, who co-leads JLL’s tenant representation team and represents national corporate office clients in facility and site acquisition.

“The velocity of transactions and activity that we’re seeing is huge for the first six to eight weeks of the year.”

Texas’ business-friendly environment and lack of personal and corporate income taxes has long made it a premier destination for corporate relocations, though states like Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are making a push up the charts.

After crowning the Lone Star State as the best business climate in the U.S. a year ago, Site Selection Magazine dropped Texas to No. 4 alongside Tennessee and behind the previously mentioned locations based on its November 2024 site selector survey.

Yet Dallas still topped the magazine’s ranking of best cities for headquarters, followed by Charlotte, North Carolina, Atlanta and Nashville. 

State officials are hoping to solidify Texas as “the headquarters of headquarters,” as the Office of Gov. Greg Abbott calls the state. Last year, Texas snagged 24 out-of-state headquarters relocations, the first time that number has increased over the previous year since 2021, according to a list put out by Abbott’s office. 

2021 was the height of the state’s acceleration period as an HQ hub. Texas brought in 42 headquarters relocations in 2020 and 79 the following year. The number dropped to 38 in 2022 and just 17 in 2023.

Last year, the state also saw the number of headquarters moving from California to Texas rebound as 11 companies made the jump. In total, Texas has seen 314 headquarters relocations over the last decade, with nearly half of those — 156 — coming from California.

Dallas skyline

Despite a relative cooling off from the white-hot pace of 2020-21, site selection researcher The Boyd Co. maintains Texas remains a top choice for corporation relocations. 

“Some of the most high-growth submarkets today are in the Dallas Metroplex region,” principal John Boyd Jr. said of headquarters selection. “Markets like Plano, Frisco and McKinney are very much in demand.”

Companies are on the hunt for workers, which is something Texas has in spades. Texas is on track to surpass California as the nation’s most populous state by 2045, per a Realtor.com analysis of its own data and figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Texas continues to be a big winner with respect to talent migration,” Boyd said. 

DFW also topped U-Haul’s Growth Metro of 2024 list by having the largest net gains of the moving companies’ customers taking one-way trips into the Metroplex. The state’s Austin and Houston metros also placed within the company’s top 10. 

The connectivity of Texas, whether through Port Houston or the highways and airports linking DFW with the global marketplace, is one of the most attractive reasons for corporations to move to the state, Boyd said. Plus, SpaceX’s rocket launch facility in Cameron County links the state to space. 

“It’s impossible to underscore how significant the space industry is,” Boyd said. “Every industry relies on satellites in outer space — healthcare, banking, finance, transportation, defense.”

The impending rise of Y’all Street is seen as another feather in the state’s cap that can be used to attract companies, Boyd and Littlejohn said.

The Texas Stock Exchange aims to host its first listings in 2026 and establish its headquarters in the heart of Dallas, including executive offices, a conference center and a broadcast center. The New York Stock Exchange also announced plans to reincorporate its Chicago branch in Dallas as NYSE Texas.

“The stock exchanges might be a little late to the game, because this has really been a great place for financial services clients to relocate the labor base [for the past five to 10 years],” Littlejohn said.

Law firm Raymond James has completed the relocation of a majority of its Chicago-based associates to its new West Loop office.

The 58,196-square-foot lease spans nearly two floors at 120 South Riverside Plaza and accommodates financial advisors and associates. In August 2023, Ivanhoé Cambridge, alongside Hines, announced that Raymond James had signed the lease for the expansive space that combines multiple teams previously located at 550 W. Washington Blvd. and 222 S. Riverside Plaza.

“Chicago, with its rich historical legacy and strategic positioning, serves as a critical hub within the financial industry. With the opening of this multidisciplinary office, we wholeheartedly reaffirm our dedication to expanding our footprint in both Chicago and across the Midwest,” said Chris Fils, Chicagoland complex manager for Raymond James & Associates.

The recently renovated office includes a media room, a client conferencing center with white glove concierge service, and a dozen associate meeting spaces with video conferencing technology and state-of-the-art features.

Optima, Inc., an integrated real estate firm, announced Reform Studios will open at Optima Signature, a 57-story luxury apartment tower comprising 490 apartments and 58,000 square feet of commercial space in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood.

Reform Studios joins Optima Signature’s roster of commercial tenants, including Guidepost Montessori School, Egg Harbor Café, Bedazzled and GoodVets Streeterville. “Reform Studios is the latest example of Optima Signature attracting high-quality, lifestyle-focused retailers that are not only a convenient fit for the building but also contribute to its sense of community,” said David Hovey Jr., AIA, President of Optima, Inc.

The newly remodeled retail space at 228 E. Illinois Street features a custom Streeterville-inspired wall mural created by Chicago-based artist Eric Harold. Designed, developed and managed in-house by Optima, Inc., Optima Signature was completed in 2017. The LEED Silver® Certified luxury rental community features 1.5 acres of amenity space.

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Statesville City Council has given initial approval to a Huntersville developer’s plans for a large mixed-use project. The town, about 40 minutes north of Charlotte, has nearly 30,000 people.

Bowman Development Group is hoping to get entitlements for a 107.9-acre site on U.S. Highway 64. Besides single-family homes, the request includes 280 apartments and 33,600 square feet of retail space.

The project is named River Hill and would be developed on land between East Broad Street and River Hill Road, should it move forward.

The Charlotte Business Journal reports Statesville’s staff report estimates the taxable value of the project at full buildout would be $141.6 million. The apartments would be developed across five buildings with 56 units each, and the retail space would be split between two commercial buildings, plans show.

Bowman Development Group’s portfolio has included several large, mixed-use projects in the Charlotte region, such as Vermillion Village in Huntersville.

Online food ordering company Grubhub will move its headquarters to the Merchandise Mart and follow the ongoing trend of downsizing its office footprint along the way.

Grubhub will shrink its downtown office footprint by about 45 percent, finalizing a deal to sublease roughly 90,000 square feet from PayPal, reported Crain’s. If the deal is completed, Grubhub will relocate its main office from the Burnham Center at 111 W. Washington Street, where the company currently leases approximately 164,000 square feet.

The sublease follows Grubhub’s efforts to cut costs and recover its market share. In June of last year, the company laid off 400 employees or about 15 percent of its workforce. In 2021, Grubhub was acquired for $7.3 billion by Just Eat Takeaway, a rival company based in Amsterdam.

The Mart’s owner, Vornado, has embarked on an ambitious $40 million renovation of the landmark site, including revitalizations to the South Lobby and River Park. JLL was tapped to provide property management services for the updated property by Vornado.

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The largest economic development project in Georgia’s history will open sooner than anticipated. The official production start for Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America near Savannah is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024 instead of the previously projected start in the first half of 2025.

The plant will be the first EV mass-production plant for Hyundai and will produce Hyundai, Genesis and Kia cars. Hyundai’s investment for the Metaplant is about $7.59 billion and will create 8,500 jobs. LG Energy Solution is the partner that will create the battery components.

This plant has also attracted multiple suppliers to Georgia, such as car part and frame manufacturer Hwashin and Daechang Seat Corp. Outside of Hyundai, the state will also be home to Rivian Automotive Inc.’s plant in Stanton Springs, which will create about 7,500 jobs.

CapRock Partners said Building 1 at CapRock Central Point III in Visalia has completed the tilting of the building’s concrete panel walls, forming its exterior structural shape. Moving ahead of its original development timeline, Building 1 is now slated for completion in summer 2024.

The 1,270,750-square-foot, Class A speculative logistics and distribution facility encompasses approximately 75 acres within the four-building CapRock Central Point III, which is a part of CapRock’s larger five-million-square-foot Central Point masterplan.

“Building 1’s concrete walls are now tilted and the roof structure started, revealing the true magnitude and scale of CapRock Central Point III, and signifying Visalia’s rising importance as a critical distribution and logistics hub in the West,” said Bob O’Neill, SVP, acquisitions at CapRock Partners. “Designed to serve Fortune 100 corporations seeking a state-of-the-art industrial complex accessible to a large percentage of the West Coast’s population, CapRock Central Point III is drawing interest from leaders in logistics as well as food processing and manufacturing.”

JLL’s Mike Fowler, Mike McCrary and Mac Hewett lead the leasing efforts for CapRock Central Point III.

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