Your inside source for real estate, development and construction information serving the counties of Mecklenburg, Union & Iredell VOLUME 107 NUMBER 23 ■ MECKTIMES.COM
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TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2023
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Swinerton’s latest multifamily timber build tops out in Optimist Park Page 2
Foreclosure activity nationwide shows slight decline in April 2023 Page 3
Loyalty no longer pays: New employees make the same or more than tenured in 83% of high-paying jobs Page 4
ENNICO: Cutting costs the right way Page 5
GOLDMAN: If you like your job, check this box. (Also, your brain.) Page 6
CEOs got smaller raises. It would still take a typical worker two lifetimes to make their annual pay Page 7
Two new public chargers have been installed at the Chestnut Arbor Shopping Center in front of popular Mario’s Italian Restaurant at 2945 Matthews Weddington Rd. in Matthews capable of up to 350kW charging speeds. Photo courtesy Koulomb
The spark of innovation: Koulomb charges forward with local EV infrastructure BY SCOTT BAUGHMAN Electric vehicle drivers in search of a fast charge solution in Mecklenburg County now have a few new options to juice up on the road – and they can be confident that their energy is coming from a source that is local and clean thanks to stations recently unveiled by Monroe-based energy startup Koulomb. “We’ve built a top-of-the-line product that is better than anything else on the market,” said Co-founder Jeff Constantineau. “The wave of EV drivers is coming and Koulomb will be there for them with its super-fast chargers that are conveniently located in the places people already like to work and play.” Constantineau heads up the executive side of the company while the more engineering-minded decisions are made by co-founder Justin Taylor, who was also instrumental in creating Pure Power Contractors, a solar energy company which spawned Koulomb. And it’s that solar power experience that Taylor says gives Koulomb an edge over some other charger networks in and around the Queen City. As an EV driver and enthusiast himself he also understands one of the worst feelings in the world is when you arrive at a charging station in need of energy and find that the station is offline, broken or simply decommissioned. “Historically the chargers have all been small,” Taylor said. “It would be no
surprise if there’s a level 2 charger that is broken or down. Those types of smaller, slower stations have no monitoring. And unless someone calls it in, they will never know it is broken. Some of these are just free chargers so there is no incentive to bring that back up. At a 350KW charger like ours you need to get that back up since you’re not making money unless that gas station is pumping as it were.” For property developers and shopping center owners who are interested in offering effective and reliable charging stations to their tenants and customers, Taylor has a pitch that emphasizes how Koulomb is focused on keeping their stations up and going. “We are monitoring the stations of course, but also we are monitoring the voltage, the current and we have a camera that can watch,” Taylor said. “If the power is down, we can tell in real time. We have 15 years experience in the renewable sector we can leverage for our network.” That familiarity with electric utilities also led to their playful choice in naming the firm Koulomb. “Koulomb is a playful misspelling of Coulomb,” Taylor explained. “He is the physicist who developed battery technology. One Coulomb is a unit of measurement for battery charge.” And while the charging locations are a short list right now, the company has expansion in mind. Today, the firm has two charging stations with four total plugs at
Koulomb Leadership Team: (L to R) Mario Fisichello, Justin Coffey, Jeff Constantineau, Justin Taylor. Photo courtesy Koulomb the Chestnut Arbor Shopping Center in front of Mario’s Italian Restaurant at 2945 Matthews Weddington Rd. in Matthews capable of up to 350kW charging speeds. “We got off to a fast start with this charger and the one at Pure Power contractors in Monroe,” said Constantineau. “And we have six other stations in the works and another 3 that are at engineering stage.” Some locations will take more work than others, but high speed and reliability are the key goals for each. “One is in a parking deck so it isn’t easy to drill through all of that concrete,” Taylor said. “There will be a lot of engineering for that one. We have two going into Virginia, one in Atlanta and one coming to Charleston. We are looking at the major cities in the Southeast.” The Koulomb team also had their eye
PLEASE SEE KOULOMB ON PAGE 4
“An organization may want homegrown talent, they may value the fresh perspective that external hires bring, and they may want a mix. All of these approaches are valid.” Chris Martin, Syndio
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