(a+b)(a-b)=a2-b2+1.

Sometimes there are no easy answers, so it helps to have friends.  Want to know more?  Check this out. First time we hit a six digit job creation.

Good News April 24^th 2010

US Stocks rise to 17 month high propelled by energy stocks and a jump in new home sales.  This is the 8^th straight week of gains for the Dow.

US home sales surged 27% to an annual sales pace of 411,000 homes.  This is the strongest month for housing since July of 09 and the biggest monthly increase in 47 years.  The increase was the largest here in the south and the median price of homes also increased.

Triangle Unemployment falls to 8.7% in March down from 9.4% in February.

Toyota Supplier AW North Carolina will ad as many as 360 jobs during the next 24 months at their Durham location.

BB&T reports improving credit trends on consumer and other types of loans while American Express reports that their first quarter profit doubled.

Raleigh took the number 8 spot for the best places to live in the United States according to relocate America.com.

The North Carolina technology market for new jobs rises 28.3 percent in one month as more employers post job openings.

RDU posts a one month gain of 5.2% in passenger traffic and 17.5% gain for air cargo.

Forbes ranks RDU the third best city for business in the United States.  The primary reasons were job growth and relatively low cost of doing business.

3Phoenix a private defense contractor chooses Wake Forest for their new Headquarters.  Barton was chosen as the General Contractor.

Triangle Venture Capital reaches $63,000,000 in the first quarter more than triple that of the same quarter last year.

Raleigh chosen for the 2011 National Hockey League all star game.

Famous Quote “There’s a very positive relationship between people’s ability to accomplish any task and the time they’re willing to spend on it.” Joyce Brothers

Good News March 13^th 2010

This week has been the one year anniversary of the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 hitting 12 year lows.  This may be a good time to reflect on how far we have come from the low of March 9, 2009.

The Dow has moved from the low 6,000 mark to 10,600 that is a 61.17% return

The S&P has moved up 68.3%

The Nasdaq has moved up 83.8%

633,000 jobs lost in March of 09  vs. 36,000 lost in February of 2010

Other News

More Triangle employers expect to hire during the second quarter according to a survey by Manpower.

The Raleigh Offices of Whiting-Turner Contracting Company has been awarded a $136,300,000 Contract from the U. S. Navy to build facilities at Camp Lejeune near Jacksonville.

Wells Fargo announces they will add 10,000 financial Advisors.

The North Carolina Credit Union League announces that they are moving their headquarters from Greensboro to Raleigh.

Forbes Magazine ranks Raleigh the most wired city in the United States for Broadband Penetration, Broadband Access and the prevalence of Wi-Fi hot spots.

BE&K Building Group in Raleigh has been awarded a $52,000,000 contract from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to build a new laboratory and office facility in west Raleigh.

In Warren Buffets annual newsletter he commented on fixing the housing market.  He stated there were three ways to accomplish that goal. (1) Blow up a lot of houses, similar to cash for clunkers. (2) Speed up household formation by encouraging teen agers to move in together.  or (3) Reduce housing starts to a number far below household formations.  He applauds our country for choosing the third option which in his opinion will have our housing problem behind us within a year.

John Chambers from Cisco came to The Triangle and repeated his goal of increasing Cisco’s labor force here to 10,000 employees.  Cisco is currently in the midst of a $100,000,000 conversion of a two-story building in RTP to a data center.

Northeast Foods, a supplier of buns to McDonalds’, to invest $25,400,000 by building a bakery in Clayton that will involve adding 84 new jobs.

Garmin has leased 14,000 SF in Cary.

Affiliated Computer Services is hiring 280 new call center positions in Raleigh.

Retail sales have posted a surprising increase in February despite the bad weather.  This is the largest increase since November providing hope that the recovery is gaining momentum.

Consumer borrowing rose again in January for the 11^th straight month.  I think that is good news.

Finally check out the findings from a recent poll of Inc Magazines’ top 500 CEO’s.

Do you expect to hire more employees during the next six months?

93.3% said Yes 6.7% said no.

Do you expect to lay off employees during the next six months?

96.7% Said No 3.3% said yes.

How many CEO’s have added employees in the last six months? 65.5%

How many were very optimistic? 60%

How many were somewhat optimistic? 38.9%

How many were pessimistic? 1.1%

Famous Quote

If we all did the things we are capable of doing we would astound ourselves. Thomas Edison

If you know of anyone that needs help with a Design Build project or any other Commercial Construction project please keep Barton in mind.

Mark Schweibinz

Barton Group

Mark@Bartongroupnc.com

Good News February 20^th 2010

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. This may surprise you but the report put out by Charles Hayes the Chief Executive Officer of the Research Triangle Partnership offers some surprisingly good highlights.

$1.9 billion in new projects or expansions in the Triangle proper and surrounding counties, more than 10,000 jobs, and this broke the expansion record of $1.4 billion in 2008.

Mr. Hayes then goes on to mention that the current pipeline has 45 active projects that represent $1.4 billion of new investments if they all were to locate here, and they won’t,” he said. “But this could be another 10,000 jobs”.

During the last 30 days I have recorded the Broker to Broker emails and have tallied the results for Lease Requests and Purchase Requirements.  What follows are the results.

Commercial Lease requests, 68, for a total of 397,500 SF.

Commercial Purchase requirements 28, for a total of 476,000 SF.

Home Sales and home sale prices in the Triangle rise for the Fifth straight month.

Raleigh, Durham and the balance of 11 Triangle area governments have agreed to a consensus plan to clean up Falls Lake.

Raleigh’s housing market has just been ranked first and Durham sixth as part of the Top 100 housing markets ranked by Hanley Wood Market Intelligence from California.

The recent surge in the Dow is largely attributable to the positive news out of the regional manufacturing sector whose index has risen from 15.2 in January to 17.6 in February.

The Fed is pulling back on their extraordinary aid to banks further indicating the majority of the crisis is over for our country’s financial institutions.

The US Jobless rate drops below 10% in January.  The drop posted by the Wall Street Journal shows the annual rate at 9.7%

The Barton Group is please to announce that we have broken ground on a new Building for Doctor Steve Hamrick and Attorney Kieran Shanahan.  The new building is located next to Ravenscroft on Falls of Nuese in North Raleigh.  Barton is also breaking ground on two other Ground up Construction projects this month.

Superior Controls from Michigan relocates to the Triangle.  Superior designs and builds automated equipment such as assembly lines.  They will be locating on ACC Boulevard.

Silver Line Building Products take their 420,000 SF building off the market because it may need the space.

Quote

Ability is what you’re capable of doing.

Motivation determines what you do.

Attitude determines how well you do it.

Lou Holtz

If you know of anyone that needs help with a Design Build project or any other Commercial Construction project please keep Barton in mind.