Julie White from the North Carolina Metropolitan Mayors Coalition, guest speaker at the Charlotte REAL Professionals Mastermind meeting, discussed state tax incentives and the Development Finance Initiative among other issues before the North Carolina General Assembly. Members agreed that there is a need for more statewide tax incentives and there was much discussion centered around current events such as Hurricane Mathew and other high profile news that is affecting the business community. Member Barry Leasure  of Greer Walker points out that in spite of recent negative publicity, Charlotte and surrounding areas are still going and doing fine. In particular he points to a new Fayetteville retail project by a developer out of Greenville in conjunction with a finance group out of Atlanta that already has national tenants lined up but is not yet in construction.