National real estate investment and management firm Amerimar partnered with Brentwood-based Bell
& Associates Construction to develop Nashville's next boutique hotel, a 250-room West End Avenue
property that will also include a 21,500-square-foot conference center and a restaurant, all of
which is expected to open this winter.
Clarksville
Clarksville was tabbed as the most promising real estate appreciation market in the country by
Fiserv, which provides services to the financial industry. The company projected that real estate
prices in the Montgomery County city would rise 6.4% through 2009, a rosy outlook compared to
other national real estate market indexes showing home prices dropping fast.
Franklin
BioMimetic Therapeutics sold its remaining dental business to drug and medical device
maker Luitpold Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo Co. of Japan, for $40 million cash,
plus the continuation of royalties. The sale included certain manufacturing rights of GEM 21S, a
dental product approved in the U.S. and Canada for the treatment of bone loss and receding gums.
BioMimetic now plans to focus on orthopedics, spine and sports medicine products.
Nashville
Alex S. Palmer & Co. was awarded the new Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
building project in Denver, a project valued at $100 million. Other federal buildings Palmer has
built in recent years include the Veterans Administration building in San Diego and the IRS building
in Fresno, Calif.
The Nashville Capital Network, a collaborative initiative of Vanderbilt University, the
Nashville Technology Council, the Nashville Health Care Council, local investors, and local business
and professional leaders, announced in January it had closed on a $5.2 million angel fund to invest
in local early-stage companies. The NCN Angel Fund, the first of its kind in Tennessee, will help
address the capital gap that exists when an entrepreneur has exhausted "friends and family" startup
financing but is not yet ready for institutional investment such as venture capital, private equity
or bank debt. The fund was announced in the aftermath of recent news that several local venture
firms are not raising new capital.
Beleaguered TV network Shop at Home, which Knoxville-based Jewelry Television acquired
in June 2006 for around $17 million from the E.W. Scripps Co., will stop broadcasting in early
March. The network will continue to operate its successful Shop at Home Web site and call center out
of the Nashville offices.
Smyrna
Nissan North America was selected to build a midsize pickup for Suzuki Motor Corp. at
the company's Smyrna plant beginning this year. The plant's current workforce of about 5,700 will
handle the workload. The Japanese automaker's arrangement with Nissan allows Suzuki to avoid a
tariff on midsize pickups coming into the country.
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