Tuesday morning roundup

There's a couple of items worth mentioning this morning.

First up, all the local media outlets are reporting that Steve Medlin has been appointed as the Director of the City/County Planning Department. Steve was Assistant Director under Frank Duke, and has been interim director since Frank left for Virginia last fall. He inherits the Morreene Rd. mess, among other issues resulting from implementation of the new UDO. Most of the initial response to the announcement that I'm hearing has been positive. Feel free to share your thoughts on this appointment in the comments.

Elsewhere in the N&O today, Frank Norton writes that Motricity is bailing from the ATC, and moving their corporate headquarters to Bellevue, Washington. The move will cost Durham 250 jobs.

The fast-growing technology company will likely vacate its headquarters building at the American Tobacco Complex in downtown Durham within nine months, dealing a blow to that city's efforts to recruit high-tech companies.

The restructuring comes after Motricity raised several hundred million dollars from investors in recent years, including from billionaire financier Carl Icahn. In December, the company put that money to work by purchasing the former mobile services unit of Bellevue-based InfoSpace for $135 million.

. . .

The majority of the layoffs are Motricity employees, not former InfoSpace workers, said Motricity CEO Ryan Wuerch, who will stay on as chairman of the board and chief executive.

To my knowledge, this is the first significant tenant loss at the ATC, although business & real estate transactions are not really my strong point. Again, BCR readers with any information or opinions on how important this news really is are encouraged to share that in the comments.

- Barry

Comments

[Celeste]

What I want to know is what ATC is going to do with that hideous fountain now. Just rip the MOTRICITY letters out?

[hovercraft]

Yeah, there really aren't any good anagrams for it, either. "Icy Rim Tot" would only work if the city turns the pond into a childrens' skating rink.