Charlotte’s immigrant community remains on high alert after federal agents have arrested more than 250 people in an operation that began over the weekend. The fear means businesses are seeing fewer customers as people stay home. Some have even closed temporarily.
For more on the impact this crackdown is having on Charlotte’s business community, Ashley Fahey of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter joined Marshall Terry for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: You and your colleagues at the Ledger went out into the community to talk with business owners. What are you hearing?
Ashley Fahey: A lot of them are closed. You're seeing a lot of businesses along the Central Avenue corridor have decided to at least temporarily close. Some other ones are open, but many have decided to lock the doors and only open them as customers approach. And even the businesses that are open are seeing fewer customers.
There was a hair salon along Central that was open, but only one barber was working. They didn't see their first customer until afternoon. They normally had seen 15 to 20 by that point. I think that just underscores how much of a change we're seeing in this corridor. A lot of people are just staying home, trying to stay safe. We are seeing construction sites are largely empty. I talked to one developer who said [they] normally have 180 workers on a site on a given day and only 10 showed up on Monday.
Terry: You also spoke with a local economist about the greater effect of all of this on the economy. What did he say?
Fahey: Mark Vitner with Piedmont Crescent Capital — an economist who's been around Charlotte for a long time — he said it's most likely to be a little bit of a drag on the near term.
What this looks like on the long term, I think, is still muddled and is hard to say. The sort of incidental spending that people do, like gas, coffee, convenience store purchases, that certainly will take a hit in the short term. But over the long term, we'll just have to see.
We know in California, after weeks of immigration work site raids this summer, employment did drop about 3%, which isn't insignificant. I think we're just going to have to wait and see how long the operation here lasts and what the medium-to-long-term impacts might be.
Terry: A notable Charlotte company this week announced it’s going private. Sealed Air makes packing material like bubble wrap. What’s behind that decision?
Fahey: As far as what drove it, I'm not sure. We are seeing a good amount of mergers and acquisitions activity, I think, in the broader economy right now. It is going to be acquired by private equity firm CD&R, which is based in New York. Sealed Air has said it intends to keep its headquarters in Charlotte. It's currently headquartered out by the airport. CD&R they have a lot of investments in the packaging space and industrial space. It makes sense, maybe why they might want to be interested in Sealed Air. The deal is valued at $10.3 billion, obviously not a small number. It’s expected to close by mid-2026.
Terry: Finally, an update on the big news last week that electric vehicle startup Scout Motors is setting up its headquarters in Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood. The company has started posting jobs at the location. And they come with salaries that might make living in Plaza Midwood possible, right?
Fahey: Yeah, definitely. We know Plaza Midwood's undergone a lot of change, and certainly there's a lot of housing that rents at top of the market. So you're looking at social media senior specialist. Starting pay is about $110,000. Real estate project manager, range there is $95,000 to $120,000. Marketing kind of positions that start at $150,000. The kind of corporate positions that we sort of anticipated for Scout.
There are only about 18 positions currently posted in Charlotte for Scout. To your point, I think it just underscores that Plaza Midwood has certainly become a new kind of neighborhood.
It's arrived in some ways as an office market, and I think it's just another example of how much change it's seen.
