BusinessTN

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

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

KNOXVILLE

Erwin

• Mountain Commerce Bank expanded into the Knoxville area with the construction of a new Bearden branch on land purchased for $2.5 million. The bank, which reports $276 million in total assets, will add three more branches in 2008 in Morristown, Erwin and Johnson City.

• Greeneville

• Forward Air Corp. acquired Pinch Holdings and its related company AFTCO Enterprises. Pinch and AFTCO are privately held providers of transportation services headquartered in Houston that together generated approximately $35 million in revenue in 2007.

• Harrogate

• Lincoln Memorial University has taken over occupancy of the Old City Hall Building in downtown Knoxville. The 64,000-square-feet satellite campus will be used for proposed doctoral programs in education and law.

• Lenoir City

• EOD Technology garnered a $6.4 million contract to provide explosives- and narcotics-detecting canine units to NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, per the federal government's Joint Contracting Command. EODT's 43 dog teams will support security operations along the Kandahar Airfield and points across five Afghani provinces for a six-month period.

• Kingsport

• Eastman Chemical Co. was ranked #64 on the "100 Best Corporate Citizens" for 2008 by Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine.

• Knoxville

• The newly merged St. Mary's Health System and Baptist Health System, now known as Mercy Health Partners, announced plans to build a state-of-the-art medical center in downtown Knoxville. While no construction plans or timeframes were revealed, Mercy will move in-patient services from the Baptist Hospital downtown to other St. Mary's facilities in August.
• The undergraduate business program at UT-Knoxville has been ranked 50th among the nation's top-tier public universities by BusinessWeek magazine. (In 2007, UT-K's program placed 93rd overall.) In related news, the College of Business Administration expects to move into its new, $40 million, 174,000-square-foot building at the corner of Andy Holt Avenue and Volunteer Boulevard in the fall semester 2008.

• Maryville

• Maryville Board of Education approved a three-year contract that will outfit the high school's varsity football team and staff exclusively in Nike equipment and apparel. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

• Newport/h3>

  Germany-based pipe support systems maker Lisega will invest $10 million to relocate its only U.S. manufacturing facility from Cocke County to Sevier County's Smith-Thomas Technology Park, creating 100 new jobs and retaining its 124 current employees. Lisega will continue Newport operations for about 18 months while its new 100,000-square-foot facility is completed.

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

CHATTANOOGA

Athens, Ala. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it would increase oversight of TVA's Brown's Ferry Unit I, which since its restart last May has experienced more unplanned shutdowns than any other U.S. nuclear facility.

• Atlanta

• The Georgia Department of Transportation said by October 2009 it expects to unveil an $8 million feasibility study of a high-speed rail link between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

• Chattanooga

• After numerous complaints about its inaccuracy, officials at BlueCross BlueShield said they would delay the launch of an online publication for commercial clients listing quality and cost information for physicians.
• With convention numbers flattening and nearby retail growth less than anticipated, Chattanooga officials are considering selling the 200-room Chattanoogan conference center, constructed five years ago for $43 million.
• The Chattanooga City Council promised the city-owned Electric Power Board a $1 million tax break if its planned residential telecommunications service is unsuccessful. The cable industry is fighting EPB's $230 million venture.
• Citing an $180,000 funding deficit, Chattanooga Lookouts owner Frank Burke said he would leave as manager of historic football facility Finley Stadium unless he receives adequate support from local government.
• Lexington, Tenn.-based MIG acquired automotive components plant Modern Industries, renaming it MIG Wire and Tube and rescuing the 300-employee plant from probable foreclosure. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
• Unum Group announced it has opted to locate a new, 200-employee software and IT office in Ireland because there are not adequate numbers of IT graduates in the United States.
• In anticipation of TVA's new reactor projects, Westinghouse Electric Co. will build a $9.45 million Nuclear Services Business Unit, creating 52 new jobs for nuclear engineers and technicians.

• Soddy-Daisy

• Tennessee Department of Transportation officials are conducting a "traffic and revenue" study to determine a toll rate for a proposed span across the Tennessee River between Soddy-Daisy and Harrison, Tenn.

• Trion, Ga. Mount Vernon Mills, a denim manufacturer, cut work schedules, resulting in 300 layoffs and a shortened work week for another 1,000 employees. Management blamed foreign competition and higher manufacturing costs.

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

MEMPHIS

• Cotton was kicked again, this time by commodity futures traders that created what was called the most volatile market in memory. Those in the industry are demanding the Commodity Futures Trading Commission look into the record run-up in the futures market in early March that left cotton merchants short and scrambling to cover the difference that reached the hundreds of millions of dollars.
• The world's largest coffee and bakery quick-service restaurant chain, Dunkin' Donuts, announced plans to expand into the Memphis market with more than 50 new restaurants over the next several years as part an aggressive statewide and national growth strategy.
• The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that Elvis Presley Enterprises plans to spend upwards of $1 billion in the much-blighted neighborhood of Whitehaven, building hotels, facilities for conventions and other areas around Graceland, once the most visited private residence in the country. The expected impact on local business had led city personnel to speculate that by year's end residents will see a marked difference with the commencement of multiple construction projects, not just by EPE but also by the city via the MATA intermodal transfer facility.
• A March assessment from the Memphis Area Association of Realtors alerted members they could expect no quick rebound in residential sales to economy-driving levels from two years ago. The executive assessment explained that any turnaround would likely take 18 months to right the local market and the effects it's had on Shelby County's tax revenue.
• Memphis International Airport was named the world's top air cargo airport by the Airports Council International for the 16th consecutive year. According to ACI, the airport processed 3,840,574 tons of cargo in 2007, up 4% from 2006. Following Memphis was the Hong Kong airport, which handled 3,772,673 tons of cargo in 2007. Also, for the second time in three years, Memphis International received the highest overall score among airports in North America, in the fourth annual Air Cargo Excellence Survey conducted by Air Cargo World magazine.
• Morgan Keegan & Co.'s president and CEO Doug Edwards retired in April shortly after the Memphis-based brokerage firm's owner, Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial Corp., released news that the Securities and Exchange Commission requested information on poor-performing Morgan Keegan-managed mutual funds. Regions' officials would not say if the two events were connected. The departure is the second high-profile move in less than six months. Last December, co-founder Allen Morgan Jr., retired as chairman and relinquished his seat on the Regions board.
• The University of Memphis' January Survey Memphis reported that economic expectations among local business people are low and falling. Locals feel that national economy will continue on its rocky path perhaps until summer, and the local economy will be even worse, according to survey participants. In the report, researchers said that local business confidence has declined significantly due to the continuing housing slump, high energy prices, volatile security markets and weak credit conditions.

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

NASHVILLE

Columbia

• In a coup for the state of Tennessee's efforts to attract more of the filmmaking industry to its shores, Disney announced that part of the new Hannah Montana movie would be shot in downtown Columbia beginning in May.
  Franklin
• Capella Healthcare acquired nine hospitals representing approximately $425 million in net revenue from Community Health Systems. Combined, the nine hospitals have 1,070 beds and employ nearly 4,000 people.
  
  

  Hartsville

• Nashville's Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest private prison operator, announced it would build a company-owned and operated 2,040-bed, $143 million correctional facility in Hartsville, bringing hundreds of jobs to Trousdale County. Annual property taxes are estimated at $1.5 million and utility payments are projected to total $1.8 million.
  
  

  Hendersonville

• Indiana-based Arvin Sango announced plans to open a $10 million auto parts manufacturing operation in Hendersonville that will employ 40 people and build exhaust systems for the Toyota Highlander SUV.
  
  

  La Vergne George P. Johnson, one of the 25 largest marketing organizations in the world according to Advertising Age, ramped up local operations adding a 300,000-square-foot fabrication and storage facility. GPJ boasts recently relocated Nissan as one of its clients.
  
  

  Nashville

• Investment banking firm Avondale Partners announced the opening of its seventh location, a new equity research office in St. Louis. Donald Broughton, Kristine Kubacki and Tim Willi, formerly with A.G. Edwards in St. Louis, joined Avondale's equity research department as senior analysts and will lead the St. Louis office.
• Mid-state book publisher Flatsigned Press sued radio/TV personality Don Imus for $4 million in Manhattan state Supreme Court following on-air comments Imus made about ads the company ran for a book about President Gerald Ford. According to the company's lawsuit, Imus stated that the publishers "have been waiting for [Ford] to croak so they can unload these [books]," called the ad spots "cheesy," and said of Ford's death that "now that he's flatLINED, you go to flatSIGNED.com." The company contends its sales dropped significantly after the comments and also that stores refused to stock the book.
• Indianapolis-based The Finish Line and Nashville's Genesco jointly announced a settlement ending the proposed $1.5 billion merger of footwear rivals. The settlement called for UBS, the deal's banker, and Finish Line to pay Genesco $175 million in cash, along with 12% of Finish Line Class A common stock.
• Healthways announced a 10-year agreement with Sao Paulo-based Fleury, S.A., Brazil's premier medicine and health company, to offer disease management services in Brazil, where 38 million people are privately insured. Healthways' first contract in South America follows the company's recent expansion into Germany.