Court Square Center Files $5 Million Permit

The group redeveloping the Lincoln American Tower and Lowenstein Building for mixed use has filed a $5 million building permit to construct an adjacent Court Square apartment building called CA2. All three buildings will have retail and residential space.

Its address is 110 Court Square, which is due east of the Lincoln American Tower. General contractor Martin Montgomery Contractors LLC filed the permit late last week at the city-county Department of Code Construction Enforcement.

The buildings are being redeveloped by CGI & Partners and Court Square Center LLC. The three principals in CGIPCSC LLC are John Basek, William Chandler and Yorke Lawson.

The CA2 building replaces the Court Annex building destroyed in the October 2006 fires Downtown. A groundbreaking for the building was held Sunday; that ceremony also served as an official opening for Lincoln American Tower.

Thanks to insurance proceeds from fire claims, the financing is in place for the multimillion-dollar project, said Lawson, principal for Court Square Center.

“While many projects are stopped or tabled or backlogged or mothballed, we’re in the enviable position of moving ahead and forward full speed,” he said.

The CA2 building will be a modern steel and glass design, in stark contrast to the rehabs of the 1885 Lowenstein Building and the 1925 Lincoln American Tower, both of which face North Main Street.

“It’s going to be the first modern architecture, certainly at this end of the street, in 50 years,” Lawson said.

Looney Ricks Kiss is architect for the CA2 building. Chooch Pickard of CM Design Corp. is architect of the Lincoln American Tower and Lowenstein Building renovations.

The foundation for CA2 was poured last week with construction expected to take a year, Lawson said. It is slated to open by August.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

Lee’s Legal Bills Top Council Agenda

A resolution to pay the legal bills of former Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division president Joseph Lee tops today’s City Council agenda.

The $426,422.33 payment to Lee by the city would cover his legal bills from a federal grand jury probe that led to his indictment on corruption charges. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Lee and his co-defendant, former City Council member Edmund Ford Sr., before the case could go to trial. Lee sued the city to recover the legal fees, and if the council approves the payment today, it also would settle the lawsuit.

Lee resigned as head of the utility during the criminal probe. Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton appointed Lee to be a deputy director of the city’s Parks Division after the charges were dismissed.

The council vote today is not expected to be unanimous. Council members have strong feelings on both sides of the issue.

The meeting will begin at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall, 125 N. Main St.

See Page 10 for the full agenda.

Wachovia, Wells Fargo Sued by Citigroup for $60B

Citigroup has filed a complaint in New York Supreme Court against Wachovia, Wells Fargo and the directors of both companies seeking more than $60 billion in damages for interfering with the bank’s planned takeover of Wachovia’s banking operations.

The complaint seeks more than $20 billion in compensatory damages and more than $40 billion in punitive damages from Wells Fargo for tortious interference. Citigroup also seeks relief from Wachovia for its bad faith breach of the banks’ contract.

Citigroup and Wachovia are battling a separate case in federal court.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve officials have been in talks with Wells Fargo and Citigroup officials in the hope of getting the parties to come to some sort of agreement, according to a person with knowledge of the talks. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

FedEx Buys N.C. Land, Won’t Commit to Construction

FedEx has bought 125 acres of land a few miles from the Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina, but the company won’t say if it will be home to a regional shipping center.

The company confirmed Friday it bought the land, but would not give the price. FedEx Ground Package System Inc., a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., bought the land.

FedEx Ground is looking for a place to build a 400,000-square-foot sorting hub.

Company spokesman David Westrick said the land purchase doesn’t guarantee where the hub will be placed. He said sites in Greenville, S.C., and Murfreesboro, Tenn., are still in the running.

Harrah’s to Shrink Tunica Work Force

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which operates three of the nine casinos in the Tunica casino gaming market, is shaving its Tunica work force because of the current nationwide economic downturn, the company reported this month.

Harrah’s declined to release a specific number of jobs that would be cut, but it did acknowledge that 2 percent of its headcount among the three Tunica casinos will be eliminated. Based on the latest Harrah’s employee numbers from the Mississippi Gaming Commission, that would mean the loss of about 100 jobs.

Congress Opens Hearings On Financial Meltdown

Congress heard Monday that Lehman Brothers, days away from becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, was pleading for a federal rescue on one hand while steering millions of dollars to departing executives on the other.

The first hearing into what caused the nation’s financial markets to collapse last month, precipitating a $700 billion bailout, opened Monday with finger pointing and glimpses into internal company documents from Lehman’s chaotic last hours.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the giant investment bank was “a company in which there was no accountability for failure.” Lehman’s collapse set off a panic that within days had President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asking Congress to pass the rescue plan for the financial sector.

Richard S. Fuld Jr., chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers, was among witnesses called to testify.

Waxman read excerpts from Lehman documents in which a recommendation that top management should forgo bonuses was apparently brushed aside. He also cited a Sept. 11 request to Lehman’s compensation board that three executives leaving the company be given $20 million in “special payments.”

“In other words, even as Mr. Fuld was pleading with Secretary Paulson for a federal rescue, Lehman continued to squander millions on executive compensation,” Waxman said.

The government let Lehman go under Sept. 15, only to bail out insurance giant American International Group the next day, in a cascading series of financial shock and failure that put Washington on track for the multibillion-dollar rescue starting the end of that week.

Waxman described that plan as a life-support measure.

“It may keep our economy from collapsing but it won’t make it healthy again,” he said.

Debate Viewing Party To Be Held at U of M

A viewing of the presidential debate will be held today in the Michael D. Rose Theatre on the University of Memphis campus.

The departments of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Memphis, the city of Memphis and the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville are hosting the viewing for the campus community and general public.

A pre-debate reception will be held at 7 p.m. in the Rose Theatre, immediately east of the Student Plaza and the Administration Building. Seating for the debate will begin at 7:45 p.m.

Mayor Willie Herenton and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, will attend.

Afterward, attendees will participate in a live videoconference discussion with debate viewers from five other Tennessee universities.