Charlotte business week: Hospital data breach, layoffs, an airline returns to CLT
Charlotte’s business landscape saw major shifts this week, from airline shake-ups at the airport to a massive environmental settlement involving Harris Teeter’s parent company. Layoffs, lawsuits and new development plans also made headlines.
Here are key takeaways:
- JetBlue is returning to Charlotte Douglas International Airport with three daily flights to Fort Lauderdale starting July 9, one day after Spirit Airlines shut down following a failed $500 million bailout bid, prompting moves from multiple carriers including American and Frontier offering rescue fares to stranded travelers.
- Kroger, Harris Teeter’s parent company, agreed to invest $100 million and pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle Clean Air Act violations involving refrigerant leaks from 2014 to 2023 across its 2,700-plus stores.
- Atrium Health is notifying several thousand Charlotte-area patients about a data breach involving third-party vendor Cerner Health, with roughly 4,035 North Carolinians affected and exposed information potentially including names, medical records and Social Security numbers.
- Charlotte nonprofit Lions Services Inc., which employs the visually impaired, is laying off 107 workers by July 1 after a contract ended with no comparable replacement work.
- PulteGroup broke ground on Carolina Ridge, a 670-acre community in Midland that will add 1,110 homes — split between family housing and a 55-plus active adult community — about 25 miles east of Charlotte.
- Foundry Commercial listed 301 S. Brevard St. for sale, a property that includes a 90-year-old former Brooklyn McCrorey branch YMCA, one of the last remaining buildings from the razed Brooklyn neighborhood, with hopes for a mixed-use redevelopment.
- NASCAR’s Joe Gibbs Racing is suing former competition director Christopher Gabehart and Spire Motorsports for allegedly stealing trade secrets, seeking over $8 million in damages, though a judge denied an injunction against Spire citing insufficient evidence.
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