Charlotte Metro Credit Union will now be called Skyla Credit Union, but that new name has some scratching their heads. For more, "Morning Edition" host Marshall Terry talks to Toni Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger business newsletter for our segment Biz Worthy.
MarshallTerry: Okay, Tony, so what are some people saying about this? This name? Skyla.
Tony Mecia: Well, Marshall, I talked to the CEO of Skyla Credit Union, formerly Charlotte Metro Credit Union. He told me that they think that the new name is easy to say. It's fun. It's uplifting, it's aspirational. They like it. It doesn't really mean anything in particular, but they think it just sounds good. After we published our article in the Charlotte Ledger about the new name though, we did have some readers who pointed out that Skyla also happens to be the name of a Bear Pharmaceuticals intrauterine device, an IUD used for birth control. If you go on Google, you will also see that Skyla also happens to be the name of a Pokémon character.
Terry: Any idea if the bank was aware of this before but using that name?
Mecia: Well, I didn't get to ask the CEO about that. I do know that this is something that was a process over many months. They did hire an outside branding firm called Tungsten out of Brevard, North Carolina. They said they looked at a whole bunch of different possibilities. This was something that came about because Charlotte Metro Credit Union, now Skyla Credit Union, merged with Premier Federal Credit Union and picked up some locations in other parts of the state and Asheville. They have a location in Greensboro, so just leaving it at the Charlotte Metro Credit Union probably wouldn't play that well in other parts of the state. So they felt like they had to change it and that's what they came up with.
Terry: And as I mentioned a moment ago, it's not just the new name, but a new headquarters that's coming in. Where's that new headquarters going to be.
Mecia: Going to be on Central Avenue in the Plaza Midwood, Elizabeth area, right next to their flagship location. This is one of the older credit unions in Charlotte, been around since the 1960s. They have about eight locations in Charlotte. So new headquarters, new name, that's the direction they're going.
Terry: Well, let's stick with the banking news for a moment. There's concern that Wells Fargo may be about to announce mortgage layoffs. Does this have anything to do with rising interest rates?
Mecia: Yes, it does. I think, as we all know, interest rates are increasing. That increases the rates for mortgages. We've seen a lot of mortgages dry up. You're not having as many people buy houses or refinance houses because that is getting more expensive. And then it stands to reason that banks aren't doing as many of those, that they wouldn't need as many workers to process those mortgages.
CNBC had some anonymous sources that said that people at Wells Fargo are bracing for some layoffs. That's probably not unique to Wells Fargo, though. The entire banking industry is struggling with that. Although higher interest rates can be good for banks in the sense that they can make more money off of interest. So it cuts a little bit both ways.
Terry: Now, is there any idea of how many layoffs we're talking about here or where those layoffs would occur? I mean, how much would Charlotte be affected now?
Mecia: Don't really have a lot of details on that. They don't usually specify where all their workers are and in which divisions. But it would stand to reason that, you know, you might see some effects here in Charlotte. You know, we've seen that with some other mortgage lenders. And so, you know, Charlotte's certainly not immune.
Terry: All right. Let's venture outside of Charlotte for a moment to Catawba County. Microsoft has announced it's planning to invest $1 billion into a project there. What is it?
Mecia: Marshall, Microsoft has said it is investing $1 billion in a series of data centers in Catawba County — in Hickory, Conover and Maiden. It'll create only 50 jobs. These are pretty expensive centers, but they don't require a whole lot of personnel.
North Carolina is really becoming known as a hub of data centers. We've seen a bunch that have been announced over the last few years. Facebook has one in Rutherford County. Google has one in the north. Apple has announced one in Catawba County. So we're really seeing a whole bunch of these. There were local incentives. I don't have the details on those as we speak here, but there were some incentives that were handed out. Don't know how much. The state, I believe, has not approved any incentives as far as I know for this. Again, it's only 50 jobs and a lot of the state incentives are geared around job creation, but certainly helps solidify North Carolina status as a data center (hub).
Terry: All right. On to some chicken news now. The Ledger reports that Chick-Fil-A wanted to buy a Bojangles site for expansion but was turned down. Tony, where is this site Chick-Fil-A wanted to buy and why did Bo say no?
Mecia: Marshall, we're talking about the Chick-fil-A and the Bojangles on Randolph Road in Cotswold. that Chick-Fil-A is one of the more notorious in town. We're having traffic backups that stretch out into the street and snarl traffic in the area. Chick-fil-A is trying to rezone the property to make it a little bit more friendly for a drive-thru to be able to accommodate more cars.
At a community meeting last week. Residents asked Chick-fil-A about that rezoning. They said, 'Well, why don't you just buy the Bojangles next door and expand it? Wouldn't that be easier?' And the Chick-fil-A official said, 'Well, we tried to buy the Bojangles, but they refused to sell it to us.' And the guy said, quote, 'It might be a chicken thing.' I took that to mean these are competitors. You know, when you have fierce competitors, a lot of times they don't want to sell in a way that would advantage their rival. I talked to Bojangles. Bojangles said the site is not for sale. They said it's one of their better performing stores and they also are hoping to remodel their store there on Randolph Road in Cotswold.
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