The City of Chattanooga is considering selling the upscale Chattanoogan hotel, whose profits are steadily growing but still do not cover its $3 million annual debt service.
Chattanoogan.com reported that the Chattanooga City Council approved a plan allowing citizens to rent goats to fight kudzu, privet and other invasive plants on their property. The city began using a herd of goats last year as a more environmentally friendly way of curbing invasive weeds at various city sites. Lee Norris, deputy city public works administrator, was quoted as stating that renting a goat from the city will "work pretty much like getting a construction permit."
Covista Communications acquired New York-based telecommunication companies GT3 Holdings Corp. and ClearEnd Corp. The new subsidiaries give Covista a 100,000-member customer base and a nationwide fiber network.
First Volunteer Bank has expanded its presence in Bradley and Polk counties with the purchase of Benton Banking Co. Benton Banking's six branches have some $95 million in deposits.
In a $28.6 million deal, Charlotte, N.C., real estate investment firm Cogdell Spencer has bought Healthpark Medical Office Building in Chattanooga and Peerless Medical Center in Cleveland, Tenn.
Retirement Lifestyle magazine named Chattanooga among its Top 10 Healthy Places in the Southeast. The only Tennessee city listed, Chattanooga recently launched an ad campaign targeting retirees.
Southern Insurance Associates and U.S. Insurance Group have merged to form U.S. Insurance Services. Owners say they hope to acquire other independent insurers based in the Chattanooga area.
Public opposition was strong against a proposed 98-acre multi-unit housing development on historic neighborhood Stringer's Ridge, which would lose 20–30 feet in elevation in some places.
TractManager, a contract management service for medical and real estate offices, may add up to 50 employees as it expands into the former offices of law firm Shumaker, Witt, Gaither & Whitaker.
Viant Inc., which handles claims transactions for insurance companies, announced it has doubled its office space and expects to fill up to 50 new positions.
Jamestown Properties, the Atlanta real estate investment firm that in 2006 bought struggling Warehouse Row, once a burgeoning downtown outlet mall, announced plans to build a hotel on the site.
Green Bankshares slashed its fourth-quarter 2007 estimates nearly in half to report earnings to fall between $0.28 to $0.33 per share, compared with $0.52 per share. The bank also withdrew its entire 2008 guidance because of concerns over credit quality related to deteriorating residential real estate loans. The news improved a bit in January when the bank was upgraded by financial analysts Keefe Bruyette & Woods and added to the firm's "best ideas" list.
Kingsport
Eastman Chemical Co. has agreed to sell its two European PET facilities to Indonesia's Indorama Group for about $330 million. Selling the UK and Netherlands plants completes Eastman's plan to eliminate non-strategic PET assets outside the United States.
Knoxville
In December, a federal jury found in favor of former tech startup Eonstreams in a breach-of-contract case against Texas-based media giant Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel immediately filed an appeal of the $40 million judgment. The breach was related to a 2004 Internet radio services deal when Eonstreams (now owned by Atlanta-based Internap) developed ad-insertion software for Clear Channel.
Provectus Pharmaceuticals received a patent in India of its cancer-fighting agent, PV-10, assuring access to a market representing roughly one-fifth of the world's population.
TVA reported 2007 operating revenues of more than $9.2 billion, up slightly from the previous year, and net income of $383 million, an increase of $54 million from 2006. Drought and high temperatures upped fuel and purchased power costs to nearly $4.3 billion, an increase of $49 million over 2006.
Maryville
Ruby Tuesday reported a 10.8% decrease in same-store sales and 8.7% at company-owned and domestic franchise locations in the second fiscal quarter of 2008. Despite a 14.2% decrease in value, company founder and CEO Sandy Beall remains optimistic, saying that with the remodel of 500 restaurants and overall brand upgrade complete, he expects a return to "normal business." In related news, the chain will open three franchise restaurants in Manila, Philippines.
Oak Ridge
New York-based superconducting wire maker SuperPower has commissioned Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology to lower the cost of producing superconducting wires for efficient electricity transmission. This agreement builds on the DOE's recent plan to provide up to $51.8 million for five cost-shared projects to modernize the U.S. electric grid system.
Pigeon Forge
In January, Dixie Stampede's dinner theater in Orlando was abruptly sold to Orlando Premium Outlets' owner Chelsea Property Group for an undisclosed amount that was deemed an offer Dixie Stampede corporate could not refuse. This theater was the largest of the four Dixie Stampede locations. The others in Pigeon Forge, Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Branson, Mo., will continue.
Medtronic Inc. announced just before Christmas plans to sell its $20 million specialty surgical-instrument manufacturing division to Swedish-owned Sandvik Medical Solutions. Sandvik executives said the plan includes doubling the division over the next five years, as well as a graduated relocation of the division's 115 employees from the Memphis suburb to the Memphis/Shelby County International Airport area by June. Prior to the Medtronic deal, Sandvik purchased multimillion-dollar spinal implant and medical instrument manufacturer JKB Medical Technologies, which it plans to merge with the former Medtronic operation.
Memphis
Bass Pro Shop's long anticipated commitment to opening a mega-store in Memphis' Pinch district on the site of the Pyramid Arena seems finally to be coming. The Commercial Appeal announced sources next to Bass Pro's CEO said the company will soon enter a binding lease with the city for the long-dark municipal arena.
Downtown's contemporary retailing hallmark, Peabody Place, is finding creative maneuvers to fill its mostly vacant second floor. Belz Enterprises announced some of the second floor would be converted into hotel rooms while possibly turning much of the rest of the facility into an outlet mall.
FedEx Institute of Technology hired Kevin Boggs to head the institute's technology transfer division and shore up one of FIT's primary initiatives. Boggs is the second high-profile hire since Shaye Mandle was named director over the summer. His résumé includes five years as assistant director of tech transfer at the University of Florida, among the five top-grossing universities in the country with yearly revenues of exceeding $40 million.
Morgan Keegan & Co. topped Thomson Financial's six-state South Central Region list of municipal bond underwriters for 2007, serving as book-running manager on 556 issues with a par amount of $11 billion. Those totals earned the Memphis-based securities brokerage subsidiary of Birmingham's Regions Financial Corp. the eleventh spot on the national list.
Southern Sun Asset Management more than doubled its assets and employees since 2004, according to the company. The City of Memphis is among the investment management firm's new significant additions to its portfolio that helped grow assets under management from approximately $410 million to nearly $1.3 billion, and employees to a baker's dozen, with a couple more anticipated later this year.
United Healthcare was approved by the city and county for a tax freeze on its proposed $40 million mail-order pharmacy. The project would bring 700 jobs, including positions for 75 pharmacists, 225 pharmacy technicians, 271 mail clerks and more than 40 information technology personnel. Company revenues reached $13 billion last year. UH executives are considering other cities for the project.
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.
