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Pulte Homes' Charlotte mortgage center closing
Pulte Homes' mortgage arm is closing its Charlotte office, eliminating nearly 90 jobs.
The mortgage-processing center handled lending mostly for the homebuilder's southeastern U.S. operations. Pulte Mortgage plans to consolidate processing at its headquarters near Denver, said spokesman Mark Marymee. The company lends only to Pulte Homes customers.
The Charlotte closure, expected to be complete by Dec. 19, comes amid an entrenched national housing crisis that has eroded sales, construction and prices. Many lenders have cut back, including Wachovia, which is eliminating 5,000 of 11,500 jobs in its mortgage unit to cut costs. HSBC Holdings, Wells Fargo and LendingTree are among others that have trimmed mortgage jobs.
Pulte Mortgage said the shutdown is permanent, according to its federally required notification of the layoffs, dated Sept. 8.
Four mortgage representatives will continue working with Pulte's Charlotte-area building business, said Jon Hardy, the national builder's division president here. The division, with projects such as Sun City Carolina Lakes in Lancaster County, S.C., has a total of 130 workers, including sales representatives, construction superintendents and administrative staff.
Duke to build windmill farm in Wyoming
Duke Energy Corp. has continued its investment into wind-powered energy, announcing plans Tuesday to build a windmill farm in Wyoming that would sell power to a West Coast utility.
Charlotte-based Duke said it has a 20-year-contract to sell 99 megawatts to PacifiCorp, a Portland, Ore.-based utility that serves customers in six Western states. Duke also announced the purchase of 100 wind turbines from General Electric to produce 150 megawatts at various U.S. sites.
Duke has made several investments recently to make money from wind. It's an outgrowth of the national push to increase renewable energy use and reduce future emissions of carbon dioxide from burning coal.
Hospital system posts $112 million loss
Carolinas HealthCare System reported a loss of $112 million in the first six months of the year, due to losses in investments.
Officials presented the financial report at Tuesday's quarterly meeting of the CHS board. They compared the early 2008 loss to earnings of $137 million at this time last year.
It was the second straight quarter of losses, but Greg Gombar, chief financial officer, said it will not affect the operations of the region's largest hospital system.
“We don't run our business depending on the investment results,” Gombar said. “That's for the long-term capital plan. Over the long term, we're still going to expect a return of 7 or 8 percent, which we have.”
Income from operation of Carolinas HealthCare, the parent of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, was also down, by 39 percent. Operating income through June was about $28 million, compared to $45 million after six months of 2007, because of interest and depreciation expenses, the company said.
BB&T tops in mortgage satisfaction
For the second year in a row, Winston-Salem's BB&T Corp. ranked first in a national survey of customer satisfaction with mortgage servicers, according to data released Tuesday by J.D. Power and Associates. But the survey, based on responses from more than 10,000 homeowners, also found that customer satisfaction overall with mortgage servicers had declined over the year because of increased billing errors and more service “hands off,” the survey said. Customers also cited late payments – on their own end – as a factor in the lower satisfaction levels.
Charlotte's Bank of America Corp. again ranked above average, as did Wachovia Corp., after ranking one point below average last year. Countrywide Financial Corp., a California lender known for exotic mortgages, ranked below average for customer satisfaction. It ranked above average in 2007 and 2006. Bank of America bought Countrywide earlier this summer.
J.D. Power also releases a yearly survey on mortgage originators.
NewDominion moving to new home
NewDominion Bank, a Charlotte community bank, is moving into its new location in the Metropolitan complex in midtown this weekend. The bank, which opened in 2005, is currently located nearby on Kenilworth Avenue.
Alliance Bank and Trust founder leaving
Gastonia-based Alliance Bank and Trust chief executive William Sudyk, who founded the bank in 2004, is leaving to pursue other interests. Chief Financial Officer Daniel Ayscue was named interim president and CEO.
Brookwood Associates advised in sale
Brookwood Associates, a Charlotte investment bank, said it advised AirWorx Construction Equipment & Supply, an aerial lift equipment rental company, in its sale.
