BusinessTN

Chattanooga/East
Knoxville/East
Memphis/West
Nashville/Middle

Chattanooga/East
Knoxville/East
Memphis/West
Nashville/Middle

Chattanooga

• Chattanooga
  
  • Anticipating new business from the nuclear power revival, Alstom Power is ramping up production of steam and gas turbines, adding 360 jobs and $280 million in expanded facilities.
  • Ten-year-old company AquaShield, which specializes in storm-water conservation and treatment, began construction of a new, "green" 5,000-square-foot headquarters building, scheduled to open in April.
  • The Chattanooga City Council approved establishment of the first phase of a downtown homeless complex. The plan has met heavy opposition by businesses and homeowners who fear it will stymie area revitalization.
  • Virginia advertising agency Neathawk Dubuque & Packett has bought marketing communications firm Daniel+Douglas+Norcross (ddN), which will change its name but retain its Chattanooga operations.
  • Mayor Ron Littlefield says he and Atlanta mayor, Shirley Franklin, discussed cooperative management of water and air traffic overflow, as drought-stricken Atlanta eyes the Tennessee River and Chattanooga eyes Atlanta's busy airport.
  • City officials considered legal action against Segal Co., New York consultants who underestimated the cost of a revised fire and police pension plan—an unanticipated $33 million expense since 2000.
  • Blaming "unfavorable" market conditions, German utility RWE postponed its IPO of American Water Works, parent company of Tennessee-American Water Co., which supplies water to the Chattanooga area.
  • In an $18.1 million deal, T-Mobile sold the building housing its call center to private investors but says it will lease the 80,000-square-foot facility for another 15 years.
  • United Enertech says it will spend $2 million to expand manufacturing due to dramatically increased demand for its products, which include louvers, dampers and roof curbs.
• Dalton, Ga.
  
  • Three-year-old Edge Flooring, which manufactures "floating" snap-lock ceramic tile, filed for bankruptcy—a move thought to be precipitated by consumer complaints and a resulting lost contract with Lowe's.
• East Ridge
  
  • Plans were approved for Splash Valley, a $12 million water park, set to open as early as May. Developers said water availability in the Chattanooga area drove their choice of locations.

Chattanooga/East
Knoxville/East
Memphis/West
Nashville/Middle

Knoxville

• Bristol
  
  • Alcoa broke ground on a $22 million project at its Can Reclamation facility, which will include a new crusher and delacquering furnace and supporting buildings. This project should increase used beverage can molten output by nearly 50%. In other news, Alcoa introduced the first of two new, fuel-efficient locomotives that will be used to transport aluminum ingots.
• Knoxville
  
  • Baptist Health System was officially rolled into fellow local hospital system, St. Mary's, in January. The two faith-based organizations will operate under an 18-member board with a new name that reflects both systems' missions. The conglomerate will net $600 million in revenue and employ more than 6,000 staff and 800 physicians.
  • IdleAire Technologies' initial public offering has stalled again when the firm was late in filing a quarterly report to the SEC as of Sept. 30, 2007. The delay could be related to its IPO or its consideration of a reverse split sale. IdleAire previously reported it was $253 million in debt and unsure whether the firm would turn a profit. IdleAire first filed with the SEC in September 2007 to raise up to $100 million in a common stock IPO underwritten by J.P. Morgan Securities and Jefferies & Co.
  • Nielsen Online ranked FoodNetwork.com as the number one recipe site in the Food & Cooking category during the Thanksgiving holiday last year, topping 5.2 million unique users. Site owner Scripps Networks Interactive had purchased another high-ranking recipe site, Recipezaar.com, in July 2007.
• Grainger County
  
  • U.K.-based billion-dollar defense and aerospace company BAE Systems used its previously awarded $112 million U.S. Army grant to open a 33,000-square-foot facility to make and assemble the Improved Outer Tactical Vest. The new plant created 185 new jobs and is expected to produce 400 vests daily. BAE has more than 1,000 employees in Grainger Co., Jefferson City and Kingsport.
• Greeneville
  
  • Forward Air Corp. has acquired privately held transportation services provider Black Hawk Freight Services—a deal that closed in December. The Illinois-based company generated about $30 million in revenue in 2006. Forward Air officials said there is little redundancy in meshing the two firm's operations.
• Johnson City
  
  • The slump in housing starts has forced General Shale Brick to lay off 65 Knoxville employees and close its Riverside Drive facility. Of the North American company's output of 1.6 billion bricks annually, 85 million come from the Knoxville operation.
• Pigeon Forge
  
  • Entertainment superstar Dolly Parton launched her Imagination Library program in the United Kingdom and created The Dollywood Foundation of the U.K. to manage it. Parton presented the first book to a newborn in Rotherham, which is three hours north of London. 15,000 Rotherham residents are eligible for the program.

Chattanooga/East
Knoxville/East
Memphis/West
Nashville/Middle

Memphis

• Bolivar
  
  • Tennessee's Health Services and Development Agency greenlit a $58.5 million construction project at Western Mental Health Institute in Bolivar to serve mentally ill patients from across West Tennessee. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2010.
• Memphis
  
  • Bankrate Inc. executives announced the publicly traded Internet consumer banking marketplace had purchased Memphis-based online credit card marketer Nationwide Card Services for more than $33 million in December. The deal included more than $26 million in cash and about $7 million in potential earn-out based on performance through 2009. No staff changes at the seven-year-old company are expected.
  • Beale Street Landing developers were finally approved by the Tennessee Historic Commission to begin a $29.4 million riverfront project that will include design changes as well as repositioning the island closest to Beale Street. The development project is also expected to receive $10 million in state and federal funding.
  • Memphis surprised many with a strong showing on CNNMoney.com's latest "Best Places to Retire" list, besting the national field for most affordable housing. The Bluff City's bargain real estate market beats other top-10 cities like Nashville, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Indianapolis, according to the report.
  • Mayor Willie Herenton announced financing is in place to build the $11 million Towne Center at Soulsville, a mixed retail space in the neighborhood featuring the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Stax Music Academy. The Towne Center is the latest public-private partnership in a neighborhood revitalization effort that began a few years ago with the construction of the $20 million museum. The facility will cover 4.5 acres.
  • The subprime mortgage mayhem afflicting the country will drain almost half a billion dollars from the Memphis metropolitan area economy this year, according to a study by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The study's conclusion was hardly a surprise to anyone familiar with the figures compiled at the University of Memphis' Center for Community Building and Neighborhood Action, figures showing that from 2004 to 2006, in one third of Shelby County's zip code areas at least 50% of mortgages were subprime loans.
  • Commercial real estate forecasters rated the Memphis area in the bottom third in an overview of 45 U.S. markets based on emerging trends in the market. Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute puts Memphis at 38, far behind New York and Seattle, which sit atop the list, but slightly ahead of cellar-dwelling New Orleans and Detroit. Local industry executives noted that despite strong submarkets in East Memphis and DeSoto County, struggling areas, particularly in downtown and South Memphis, could stunt growth.

Chattanooga/East
Knoxville/East
Memphis/West
Nashville/Middle

Nashville

• Brentwood
  
  • Centerre Healthcare of St. Louis announced it would move its 15 corporate staff members to Brentwood. Nationwide, Centerre employs 450 people. Founded five years ago, Centerre recently raised $10 million to fund its growth.
• Nashville
  
  • Belmont University and the Tennessee Baptist Convention reached an $11 million agreement ending a 56-year relationship and $58 million lawsuit. The convention had sued Belmont for its donations after Belmont moved to elect non-Baptists to its board in 2005, citing a need to reflect its increasing diversity and to enhance fundraising.
  • The Nashville Songwriters Association International bought the famed Bluebird Café in Nashville founded by Amy Kurland in the 1980s to use as a songwriters venue.
  • Alabama-based accounting firm Carr, Riggs & Ingram acquired 25-employee Bumpus Hall, renaming it Carr, Riggs & Ingram. CRI was ranked 36th on Accounting Today's 2007 list of the Top 100 firms, with $66.1 million in annual revenue.
  • Gaylord Entertainment Co. paid $252.5 million for the Westin La Cantera Resort, a suburban San Antonio hotel with 508 rooms and a 691-acre campus. Historically, Gaylord has built, rather than bought, its properties.
  • For the fifth year in a row, The Hermitage Hotel was selected as one of 21 restaurants and hotels to receive AAA Auto Club South's Five Diamond status for 2008. The selection is based on guest services, management and appearance among other criteria.
  • The IRS approved a $55 million settlement and the transfer of Maddox Foundation charitable trust money from its Hernando, Miss., headquarters to the Dan and Margaret Maddox Charitable Trust in Nashville. The Maddoxes created the trust in 1968 to support Middle Tennessee nonprofits; however it was relocated in 1999 following the death of the Maddoxes in a boating accident. The settlement comes in the aftermath of a lawsuit filed by Davidson County District AG Torry Johnson arguing that the foundation was improperly relocated to Mississippi.
  • The Nashville chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties completed a study of the impact of commercial real estate on Middle Tennessee revealing a direct impact last year of $1.5 billion on the 10-county region's economy (over 34,000 jobs).
  • The nonprofit Radio Music License Committee, which represents over 10,000 radio stations in music licensing negotiations with performing rights organizations BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, relocated from New York to Nashville. Former SESAC President William Velez is the Committee's executive director.
  • The NASDAQ Stock Market Educational Foundation awarded the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management a $45,000 grant to support Owen's Financial Markets Research Center, founded in 1987 to promote discussion and research of policy issues tied to financial markets.