Goal 1
INCLUSIVE ECONOMY AND GROWTH
Ensure continued Center City economic growth that reduces economic disparities and optimizes opportunities for all Charlotteans.
BIG IDEA: Create a Center City Equity Fund (CCEF) to provide funding for equity-driven community and economic development in the urban core
The rapid growth of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Center City over the last decade has created benefits and opportunities, but also significant growing pains and challenges.
The City Center Growth Projections Study sheds light on the nature of recent growth and development and identifies goals (or growth targets) that informed the recommendations of the 2040 Vision Plan. As the economy grew and brought new businesses and job sectors (e.g., high tech) to Center City, housing production did not keep up the pace needed to accommodate residents and newcomers. As a result, housing prices have shot up and many residents have been displaced, are struggling to pay for housing, or have become homeless.
Continued and expanded economic growth is fundamental to reaching the goals of the 2040 Vision Plan, because it provides the resources needed to invest in neighborhoods. Improvements in parks and open spaces, transit systems, and neighborhood amenities all depend on a strong economy that provides tax revenue and other funding to the City and County.
However, development and growth must be guided in order to ensure that issues of affordability, displacement and inequity are addressed. To achieve greater equity and access to opportunity, more housing is needed to ensure all Charlotteans can live in neighborhoods of their choosing, close to transit, jobs, places of worship, health care, retail and services. More housing being built overall means that more people can find housing that meets their budget and needs in their preferred neighborhood.
To remain affordable and livable, Center City must build more housing, attract new visitors to support the local economy, and diversify the types of jobs and businesses in Center City. This includes:
• Tailoring workforce and talent development programs to match residents to jobs in growing sectors
• Preserving and adapting existing industrial buildings and other spaces that can house a variety of businesses, including retail, technology, and small manufacturing
• Protecting the affordability of existing workspaces and managing the cost of doing business in Center City
• Strengthening support for entrepreneurs to create and grow local businesses
• Ensuring jobs in Center City provide opportunity for people with all skill and education levels.
Why is This Important?
Despite its growing economy, Charlotte has the least upward economic mobility of America’s 50 largest cities. This means that people who grow up in certain neighborhoods and zip codes have much less of a chance of economic success than those in communities just a few miles away. Many of these disadvantages, particularly for African-American residents, resulted from government policies and actions, including redlining, over many decades.
The deep-seated inequality between Charlotte neighborhoods and ethnic groups became especially evident when COVID-19 swept the United States. Underlying differences in access to health care, neighborhood and housing conditions, and types of work all contributed to much higher rates of infection among people of color.
The City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County is committed to addressing these divisions and inequities head-on. This Vision Plan seeks to improve access to opportunity and economic wellbeing for all residents. This requires continued economic growth and success of Uptown and Center City, so that the City and County have enough resources to invest in other communities and neighborhoods.
How Can We Achieve This?
STRATEGY 1A: ENHANCE CENTER CITY’S ECONOMIC BASE TO SUPPORT REGIONAL GROWTH
As the economic engine of the region, Center City must have a thriving economy to support the goals of this plan. Charlotte’s economy must continue to grow – and to grow more equitably. Expanding the City Center economy is critical to creating the resources needed to support more jobs, opportunity and education for all residents. As housing options expand and more people are able to live in Center City, local businesses such as restaurants, cafes and retail shops will thrive.
To guide growth and support community goals, including housing affordability, the Center City Growth Projections Report proposes the following targets for 2040:
• 35,000 new housing units including 3,500 permanently affordable homes
• 10.5 million additional square feet of office / employment space to accommodate over 19,000 new workers
• 350 new retail, restaurant, bar, and service businesses
• 8,000 hotel rooms providing for over 2 million annual stays
› Specific targets will guide growth and development to meet the employment, opportunity and affordability goals of this plan, including: A jobs-to-new-resident ratio of 1.6 or less
› 20% of jobs provided by small businesses with fewer than 50 employees
› 0% of jobs provided by new businesses in operation for 5 or fewer years
RECOMMENDATIONS
1a-1 Develop a strategic action plan for Center City job growth and workforce development that addresses:
› Target growth industries including financial and technology (FinTech) and advanced manufacturing
› The connections between land use, mobility, job growth and equity
› Opportunities to better connect workforce and talent development programs with Center City employment
› Connections between workforce and talent development programs with Center City employment, including projects and programs that are part of the City’s Corridors of Opportunity effort.
1a-2 Support and preserve existing restaurants and small businesses, particularly those hard-hit by COVID-19.
1a-3 Encourage the development and creation of diverse types of employment spaces that allow for a wide variety of businesses to locate in Center City.
1a-4 Facilitate higher-density development and employment in Uptown, along transit corridors, and in neighborhood centers.
1a-5 Expand the hotel room inventory to support hospitality jobs and visitor spending at local businesses.
1a-6 Ensure that the development / redevelopment of public property in Center City (e.g., the Hal Marshall Center) is directly tied to economic development, business recruitment and achieving the City and County’s equity goals.
STRATEGY 1B: IMPROVE PATHWAYS TO OPPORTUNITY AND ECONOMIC MOBILITY FOR ALL
Studies have shown that career and college readiness is a key factor in economic mobility. This means skill development programs need to be improved to better connect students and job seekers to family-supporting careers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1b-1 Build the resilience of the Center City economy by aligning education, training and professional development opportunities with the needs of local employers.
1b-2 Prioritize career and workforce services for residents who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on developing new skillsets in growth industries such as health care and construction.
1b-3 Identify family-supporting wage and high demand professions and align career technical education and workforce development programs and curricula to grow the local talent pipeline.
1b-4 Increase Center City business participation in workforce development and Career Pathway Programs of Study (CPPS) for local high school students to gain exposure to target industries and sectors.
1b-5 Support talent development and training programs through public revenue funding tools.
1b-6 Partner with major employers to establish and/or expand project-based learning opportunities, with an emphasis on paid internships for local high school students.
1b-7 Provide financial and program support to employers that provide in-house advancement, training and certification opportunities.
STRATEGY 1C: SUPPORT ENTREPRENEURS TO ESTABLISH AND GROW BUSINESSES
A healthy, sustainable economy and city relies on talented entrepreneurs to create small businesses to innovate, create jobs and reinvest in their communities.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1c-1 Partner with major employers and private donors to create an entrepreneurial accelerator program and/or resource center for people of color.
1c-2 Adopt an asset-based community-wealth-building approach to economic development by identifying and investing in neighborhood strengths, supporting local business ownership and creating jobs that pay family-sustaining wages.
1c-3 Work with business owners impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to negotiate flexible commercial lease terms and agreements, such as “turnover rent” in which rents are based on tenant profit, in order to preserve small businesses and prevent vacant storefronts.
1c-4 Conduct a needs assessment for small- and medium-sized businesses to identify specific challenges and growth barriers with a focus on immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQ community, women and other under-represented groups.
1c-5 Build small commercial spaces for lease, i.e., micro-shops of 400-1200 square feet and shared common spaces to create lower-cost opportunities for local retail and service businesses.
STRATEGY 1D: IMPROVE ACCESS TO CAPITAL AND EQUITY-BUILDING FOR RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES
In addition to differences in income, there are stark differences in the wealth gap that families have based on their race and ethnicity. This makes it harder for people to get ahead by having the funds (or access to the funds) for a new business or to buy a home.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1d-1 Create or support market-driven cooperative (employee-owned) businesses to create jobs, build wealth and support the local economy.
1d-2 Support opportunities for residents to invest in the growth and improvement of their communities through Neighborhood Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).
1d-3 Support home ownership and equity-building programs, especially for the Black community. Engage Center City residents displaced from Brooklyn and other former African American neighborhoods.
1d-4 Improve access to capital for micro-entrepreneurs through lending circles and money pools.
STRATEGY 1E: DIVERSIFY THE ECONOMY AND ENSURE A BALANCE OF INDUSTRIES AND JOB TYPES
A healthy economy has a balance of job types and sectors so that the community and region are not vulnerable to changing trends or market shifts, providing more stability and opportunity to more people.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1e-1 Focus recruitment and other economic development efforts on employers that provide jobs at all skill and wage levels (i.e., “GED to PhD”).
1e-2 Attract complementary start-ups and expanding firms to the North End Smart District, Atrium Health and Wellness District, the West End, and other Center City innovation and employment centers.
1e-3 Leverage stable and growing anchor institutions such as universities and hospitals, to support small business growth by:
› Hiring local residents
› Purchasing goods and materials from local vendors
› Providing talent development and training
› Incubating new businesses
› Advising and providing technical assistance
› Leveraging real estate to support local retail, affordable housing and other community priorities.
STRATEGY 1F: ESTABLISH A CENTER CITY EQUITY FUND TO A PROVIDE DEDICATED FUNDING STREAM FOR INVESTMENTS IN EQUITABLE ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG’S URBAN CORE.
Despite the most prolific decade of Center City growth in Charlotte’s history, disparities grew. Market forces alone do not allow our community to act on its stated values. Limiting factors, such as the cost of land or commercial space, can often prevent well-intentioned, equity-building projects and initiatives from taking root in Center City.
The Center City Equity Fund (CCEF) investments will provide a tool to directly tie future economic growth to the goals of the 2040 Vision Plan in a way that is strategic and sustained. This fund will create new opportunities for residents and entrepreneurs, making Charlotte more just, vibrant, and innovative.
The CCEF will be designed to capture a portion of the value from future tax growth in Center City to fund people, organizations, initiatives, and projects that seek to make Center City a place where more can prosper including:
• Affordable housing development
• Homeless services and supportive housing development
• Subsidizing commercial rents for emerging BIPOC (black indigenous or people of color) or other under-represented business owners
• Workforce development and training programs
• Strategic land banking
• Anti-displacement.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1f-1 Establish an investment board (potentially a Development Corporation) comprised of experts in grant making, equitable economic and community development and community members to guide the CCEF, advise on investments and report to the public on the use of funds.
1f-2 Confirm the boundaries of the CCEF which will include at least Uptown, but may be expanded or revised over time at the direction of the investment board.
1f-3 Identify funding categories and priorities consistent with the goals of the Vision Plan.
1f-4 Design and implement a process for community input, including working with community organizations and other funders (e.g., affordable housing developers) to inform investments and ensure transparency.
