Fluor Closing Charlotte Office

Fluor (FLR) announced plans to close its Charlotte, NC office. Between 90 and 100 people will lose their jobs in the coming weeks. The engineering and construction giant will shut down the Piedmont Row Drive facility in South park on September 30.

Fluor issued a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) notice reporting that it would close the offices  “due to unforseen circumstances.” The company was impacted by the shutdown of the V.C. Summer nuclear facility in South Carolina. Fluor opened it’s Charlotte office in 2006.

“A number of business factors have impacted Fluor’s power business project workload, thus leading to the decision to close the office and consolidate the company’s project operations in other Fluor offices to perform that work,” the company noted in an email to the Charlotte Observer.

The company reported a second-quarter loss of $24 million, or 17 cents a share, compared to net income of $101.8 million, or 73 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Shares in the engineering and construction firm dropped sharply on August 3 after the earnings report and the firm’s lowered outlook for the year. Fluor shares fell 9.4% to $39.75 after hours.

The company released a statement and said it was reassessing its power market to determine “where the gas-fired power business offers adequate return opportunities consistent with our expectations and long term experience.”