Well-known Charlotte real estate company changes name

One of Charlotte’s most well-known companies has a new name, and it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. Allen Tate Realtors announced this week it’s now known as Howard Hanna Allen Tate Real Estate.

For more on the name change and other business news of the week, Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry for our segment BizWorthy.

Marshall Terry: Allen Tate is the largest residential real estate company in Charlotte. It’s a big name. Why the change?

Tony Mecia: The name change really reflects the corporate ownership of Allen Tate. It was bought a few years ago by a company called Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, and as you mentioned, they now want to be known, the Allen Tate portion of it, as Howard Hanna Allen Tate Real Estate. Usually, when companies develop new names like this, they either kind of merge names, like Fifth Third Bank. A lot of people say, ‘Fifth Third Bank, that's kind of an odd name.’ Well, it was the merger of Fifth National Bank and Third National Bank.

The other route you sometimes see them go is sort of creating a meaningless, made-up name like Novant or Truist. Now it's also worth mentioning here, as long as we're talking about real estate, there was some new data out this week that showed that the median sales price of houses in Mecklenburg County in July dropped again, for the third straight month. It was down 1.1% to a median sales price of $460,000. Realtors say that it's really a reflection of buyers having more choices and houses staying on the market longer.

Terry: On to some banking news now. It appears Bank of America and Wells Fargo, two of Charlotte’s largest employers, will not be adding employees anytime soon. What’s going on there?

Mecia: The Wall Street Journal recently looked at the earnings announcements of some large companies, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, which have a large presence in Charlotte, and noted that the CEOs have been talking about how great a job they're doing cutting headcount. As far as Wells Fargo, it's cut headcount for the last 20 straight quarters. The CEO, Charlie Scharf, described attrition “as our friend.” Brian Moynihan of Bank of America touted his success in cutting the number of Bank of America employees from 300,000 to 212,000, and he said we've got to keep “working that down.” So I wouldn't count on seeing a huge expansion of banking jobs from either of those companies.

Terry: Over to the airport now. Florida-based Spirit Airlines, which operates 15 nonstop flights from Charlotte, says it might run out of money. What’s happening there and is it indicative of the airline industry overall?

Mecia: Spirit Airlines was in bankruptcy protection earlier this year for several months. It came out of bankruptcy protection in March, but now it's encountering more financial headwinds. It says that bookings are down and that it's not really meeting its financial targets, and it warned in a letter this week that it might run out of money in the next 12 months. That suggests potentially another bankruptcy filing. It's unusual to have bankruptcy filings so close together like that, but this is something that a lot of airlines are experiencing, including American Airlines, which has noted softness in ticket sales. As far as the impact on local jobs, I don't think we'll see that much of an impact. Spirit isn't based here and doesn't have that many jobs here.

Terry: Let’s end this week on some health-related business news. Bars and restaurants in Mecklenburg County can now come to the rescue in the event of an opioid overdose. What’s behind the county ABC board offering free Narcan and training on how to use it?

Mecia: The local ABC board is teaming up with the Mecklenburg County Health Department to offer free Narcan to bars and restaurants that ABC mixed beverage permit holders, and that's really part of a move to try to save lives during opioid overdoses. I think we're seeing an extension of that, of the availability of Narcan in public spaces, and really, this is just another step in that direction.

Support for BizWorthy comes from the law office of Robertson & Associates.