Charlotte business week: 1,000 jobs across NC, BofA insights, hospital land swap

From a major land swap for affordable housing to a multibillion-dollar data center deal, this week brought significant business developments across the Charlotte region. Here’s a roundup of the stories shaping local business last week:.

• Atrium Health gave 14 acres of land off North Tryon Street to INLIVIAN, Charlotte’s public housing authority, for affordable housing development at The Pearl, as part of a land swap years in the making. At least 25% of residential units built on the North Tryon site must be reserved for affordable housing, with half made available to people earning 50% or less of the area median income — about $56,100 for a family of four.
• Amazon and Corning Inc. struck a multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement for fiber optic cable technology to bolster Amazon data center operations, a move expected to create 1,000 jobs in the Charlotte region and other parts of North Carolina. The companies will expand a fiber-optic technician training program at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, with jobs spread across Corning’s North Carolina facilities in Concord, Winston-Salem, Wilmington, Hickory and Newton.
• Amwins is relocating its headquarters to Sharon Station in SouthPark, where it will construct a 15-story mixed-use building with nine office floors, six parking levels and up to 250,000 square feet of retail space. Demolition of existing buildings at the 2.3-acre Sharon Station site begins this month, with construction expected to be completed by the end of next year. Amwins purchased the site from Childress Klein for $16.7 million in 2024.
• Bank of America plans to open 150 new branches by 2027 despite the industry’s digital shift, with executive Holly O’Neill saying “Charlotte will always be a flagship” for the bank’s national consumer strategy.
• Downlite International, a bedding manufacturer, will close its Monroe facility and lay off 113 people by Aug. 14, following Live Comfortably’s purchase of several Downlite divisions in March. The Monroe closure follows two Ohio warehouse closures announced earlier with 164 layoffs, bringing the total to 277 employees laid off across both rounds of closures.

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