Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Economic Development

Hall on I-77: “Unbelievable to me”

House Speaker Destin Hall says he doesn’t know if there’s “anything in terms of punitive” action legislators will take against Charlotte-area governments for rescinding their support of the Interstate 77 widening. But he’s sure other regions will welcome news that the $600 million the N.C. Department of Transportation otherwise would’ve...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

DOT: New I-77 plan gets graded like any other

The N.C. Department of Transportation isn’t going to treat a new Interstate 77 project in Charlotte differently from any other highway project local governments across the state ask it to take on. That means it’ll have to go through the prioritization process legislators and DOT formalized in the 2010s early...

By Ray Gronberg

June 1, 2026

OBX beer-store chain speaks up for canned cocktails

It’s all well and good that the state House wants to legalize the sale of canned cocktails outside of ABC stores, but the Senate needs to get in the act too, the co-owner of a chain of beer and wine stores on the Outer Banks says. The Senate is advancing...

By Ray Gronberg

June 1, 2026

BorgWarner plans addition in Hendersonville

A Michigan-based car-parts supplier is looking to branch out and will invest $100 million to add 378 jobs over the next four years to its existing plant in Hendersonville. BorgWarner, which also has operations in the Buncombe County town of Arden, will add 140,000 square feet to its current 220,000-square-foot...

By Ray Gronberg

May 28, 2026

Ross criticizes Trump’s Carolina Long Bay buyout

U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, D-2nd, and some of her West Coast colleagues are scrutinizing the big-money settlement the Trump administration paid out in April to a French company to get it to abandon its offshore wind leases. Their objections during a recent U.S. House oversight hearing focused on the administration’s...

By Ray Gronberg

May 28, 2026

REBIC opposes longer moratorium on water-transfer permits

A Charlotte business group is asking members to “reach out” to legislators to stand up for the city’s ability to get another 30 million gallons of water a day from the Catawba River. The Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition is targeting the 17-month extension some House members are proposing...

By Ray Gronberg

May 28, 2026

DOT shuts down I-77 “engagement” center

State Department of Transportation officials have pulled the plug on a “community engagement center” in Charlotte they opened in late March to answer questions about the Interstate 77 widening project. The move comes because project’s dead following this week’s vote by the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization to rescind its...

By Ray Gronberg

May 26, 2026

Supreme Court upholds Duke Energy 2023-25 rates

The N.C. Supreme Court has rejected challenges from manufacturers, electric co-ops and Attorney General Jeff Jackson to Duke Energy’s 2023-25 rate-increase packages. Justice Trey Allen’s opinion held that held the N.C. Utilities Commission on all of the key issues had the discretion to act as it did in setting rates...

By Ray Gronberg

May 26, 2026

State sues VinFast, claims breach of deal

The state Commerce Department is suing VinFast to take control of the Chatham County land the Vietnamese company had promised would become the site of an automobile factory. Filed on Thursday, the company contends that work has stalled and it’s now impossible for the company to have a factory up...

By Ray Gronberg

May 22, 2026

DOT chief concedes communication failures in I-77 dispute

State Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson conceded that his agency could’ve and should’ve done a better job communicating with Charlotte residents about the plan to add more toll lanes to Interstate 77. Along the way, “we had a lot of robust engagement on the development of the project with with local...

By Ray Gronberg

May 22, 2026

Housing deregulation: If at first you don’t succeed …

Rep. Jeff Zenger and his allies are taking another stab at making local governments loosen their restrictions on housing development. A revised version of Senate Bill 445 rolled out this week in the Forsyth County Republican’s Regulatory Reform committee includes provisions that would force cities and counties to allow home...

By Ray Gronberg

May 22, 2026

House considering data-center restrictions

House Republican have proposed a series of restrictions on data-center development, but are coupling them a restriction on the retirement of existing baseload power plants. The proposal’s embedded in a proposed revision of Senate Bill 730 that cleared the House’s Energy and Public Utilities committee on Wednesday. In all, the...

By Ray Gronberg

May 22, 2026

Stein hires a housing adviser

Gov. Josh Stein has hired former Urban Institute Vice President Janneke Ratcliffe to serve as his senior adviser for housing policy. Ratcliffe will serve as Stein’s point person for an effort to come up with and implement a statewide housing strategy. An executive order rolled out on Tuesday instructs state...

By Ray Gronberg

May 22, 2026

“WWAD” — the power of the Retail Merchants

Last week’s piece on the North Carolina lobbyists who’ve registered the largest number of clients brought forth an interesting comment from one of them who’s also a loyal Tribune reader. This basically notes that while our method identifies quite a few well-known heavy hitters, it shortchanges the lobbyists who basically...

By Ray Gronberg

May 22, 2026

Backtracking on Brunswick

It’s looking like legislators are going to walk back a 2019 decision that allowed the Brunswick County Commissioners to farm out most all land-use decisions to appointed boards. Pending bills in both chambers say that going forward, the final decision in all development approvals will rest with the commissioners. House...

By Ray Gronberg

May 22, 2026