Let’s take a moment now to check in on the status of one of Charlotte’s most well-known homegrown companies, whose founder and CEO died unexpectedly last fall. Doug Lebda was killed in an off-roading vehicle accident on his country property. He founded LendingTree, an online financial services company, in the 1990s. For more, Ashley Fahey of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: After Lebda died, LendingTree’s chief operating officer, Scott Peyree, was thrust into the position of CEO. How is he and the company doing a few months now since Lebda’s death?
Ashley Fahey: LendingTree has actually been in a pretty good spot as far as their recent quarterly earnings. Revenue and profits have been up.
Obviously, it's been interesting, I'm sure, for Peyree to navigate being thrust into the CEO position essentially overnight. He spoke with my colleague Tony Mecia. I think it's interesting to note that Peyree is actually based on the West Coast. He calls himself a Seattle guy. I think that would prompt a lot of questions for Charlotte folks about would LendingTree move to Seattle where I think they have maybe 100+ employees. But he tells Tony that they plan to keep the headquarters here in Charlotte.
As far as what LendingTree is looking to do next, I think every company, including LendingTree, is talking about artificial intelligence. Peyree also mentioned brand awareness. They want to make sure that LendingTree is the first company that comes to mind for any of its types of products.
Terry: Let’s go now to SouthPark Mall, where luxury store Alexander McQueen has closed after opening just a few years ago. The Chanel boutique that was in Neiman Marcus appears to also have shutdown. Is this directly related to the bankruptcy filing of Saks Global, the parent company? And also, is this the beginning of the end of luxury shopping at the mall?
Fahey: I don't think these two closures are necessarily correlated. It just was interesting because Alexander McQueen, that's a really big name in high fashion. It's a London-based clothing brand. Not really sure what to make of that necessarily. But as far as the Chanel boutique closure within Neiman Marcus, I do wonder if that is connected to the broader issues that's facing Saks Global right now. They filed for Chapter 11. We don't know what that will look like.
Frequently, when companies do file Chapter 11, a lot of times in the proceedings, they try to get out of expensive leases. So what does that mean for Neiman Marcus at SouthPark, which is, of course, an anchor tenant at the mall, occupies about 80,000 square feet? I think that's a big question, and I think it'll be interesting to see. With Chanel looking to close their boutique there and other Saks Global-owned stores across the country, I think it's a sign that they want to keep their inventory and don't want it to be part of a potential liquidation if that does occur, but there's still a lot we don't know here yet.
Terry: Let’s end on a story this week, we talked about last week at this time, the push by west Charlotte neighborhoods McCrorey Heights and Oaklawn Park to get national historic status. It seems like this effort could affect DOT’s plans to add express lanes on I-77. How so?
Fahey: If they do get this designation, that will trigger what's called a Section 106 review. Basically, because NCDOT has these lofty plans to expand I-77 south and add express lanes, it has been a very controversial project, as I know everyone in Charlotte has probably heard, with the West Side — basically, the Section 106 review would require NCDOT to go in and make sure that they're not imposing on these historic either structures or neighborhoods.
A lot of neighborhoods have been using historic designations to try to stem or slow development more broadly, but I think in the context of the I-77 south project, it's especially notable. I spoke with the president of the McCrorey Heights Neighborhood Association, who said this is the third time a highway project has encroached on [their] neighborhood. [They] want to make sure that [their] homes aren't going to get torn down, and this designation would help [them] with that.
