SunShine Car Wash Slated For Poplar and Colonial
SunShine Carwash Partners LLC has bought the parcel at 4831 Poplar Ave. in East Memphis with plans to build a tunnel wash facility there. The company on Oct. 30 paid $500,000 for the property from BCH Investments LLC and on the same day filed a $1 million loan through Landmark Community Bank.
The 4831 Poplar property is at the southeast corner of Poplar and Colonial Road. It includes a 1,530-square-foot building constructed in 1996 that sits on 0.1 acre. It is now empty after once housing an Avis car rental facility. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2009 appraisal is $171,400.
Michael B. Baird signed the warranty deed as chief manager of BCH Investments LLC. Baird and Tim Michelotti signed the trust deed as president and secretary, respectively, of SunShine Carwash Partners.
SunShine Car Wash’s Web site says the company operates nine car wash facilities in the area with four more coming soon.
BCH just months earlier bought three parcels at that intersection – 4811, 4825 and 4831 Poplar – for a combined $1.4 million. The seller was Clifton and Whitney Co., which had owned the parcels, known as Lots 1, 2 and 3 of the Colonial-Poplar Commercial Subdivision, since 1978.
The new owner has additional plans for the corner besides the car wash. Jody McKibben, an affiliate broker at Investec Realty Services LLC, worked with the buyer and spoke with The Daily News in August about its plans for the corner.
He said the long-term futures of Saint Paul Book & Gift Store and a neighboring nail salon (in the building that formerly housed FSBO Magazine) are in the air as the ownership group considers future development.
“There’s a second part of the development that’s not public yet,” McKibben said in August. “Step one is to leave those guys in place, build the tunnel wash and get that (east side) done and then kind of re-evaluate step two.”
For more on the redevelopment of the southeast corner of Poplar and Colonial, see the Aug. 25 edition of The Daily News, www.memphisdailynews.com.
Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports
– Eric Smith
MLGW Board to Consider Amended 2010 Budgets
The Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division board of directors today will consider a resolution approving amended 2010 budgets for the utility’s electric, gas and water divisions, all of which include no planned rate increases in the coming year.
Utility officials will present the budgets to the City Council for action to be taken at the council’s Nov. 17 meeting.
Today’s MLGW meeting will begin at 3 p.m. in the boardroom of the MLGW Administration Building, 220 S. Main St.
– Andy Meek
Tennessee Lawmakers Get $14-a-Day Expense Increase
While faced with a continuing state budget crunch that likely will mean laying off more state employees, Tennessee legislators have received a $14-a-day increase in their compensation for expenses.
Some of them told the Chattanooga Times Free Press they are surprised, that they had no idea the 8.1 percent increase took effect when the federal government’s new fiscal year started.
The newspaper reports the expense payments automatically increased Oct. 1 from $171 to $185.
Lawmakers get the payments for food and lodging costs while away from their home districts on official business.
Legislative Office of Administration Director Connie Ridley said the General Assembly’s per diem is based on the federal reimbursement rate for the Nashville area and those rates went up in October.
– The Associated Press
Hollywood Casino Names Carlucci New GM
Anthony Carlucci is the new general manager at Hollywood Casino Tunica.
Carlucci, 48, previously worked at Boomtown Biloxi, Miss., where he served as assistant general manager. He also has held management positions in casinos in Illinois and Atlantic City, N.J. He is a certified public accountant.
Carlucci replaced John Osborne, who left Tunica to become general manager of Hollywood Slots Hotel & Raceway in Bangor, Maine. Both casinos are owned by Penn National Gaming Inc.
The casino company is looking to expand after scoring a victory in Tuesday’s elections. Ohio voters approved a plan to put casinos in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. Penn National Gaming and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert spent nearly $35 million to promote the casino initiative.
– Tom Wilemon
ISM’s Service Sector Index Grows Again in October
The U.S. service sector grew for a second straight month in October, but at a slower pace than in September, as a broad economic recovery creeps along.
The Institute for Supply Management reported Wednesday its service index dipped to 50.6 last month from 50.9. Any reading above 50 signals growth. Analysts polled by
Thomson Reuters had expected a 51.5 for the index that tracks the country’s hospitals, retailers, financial services companies and truckers.
But new orders, an augur of future activity, rose to 55.6, from 54.2 in September. Business activity also rose.
Still, the decline in employment worsened. The employment tracker has contracted for 21 of the past 22 months.
In the ISM’s survey, nine industries said their businesses grew last month, with real estate, construction, corporate management and support services showing the biggest gains. Seven sectors contracted.
The index tracks more than 80 percent of the country’s economic activity.
Last month’s dip “may be a sign that the recovery is still struggling to gain any momentum,” said Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.
He added, though, that a similar slip in July was later reversed and that the new report may “possibly be nothing more than a temporary blip.”
– The Associated Press
YLD to Host Benefit for MALS
The Memphis Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division will host a benefit concert for Memphis Area Legal Services Inc. Friday at Newby’s, 539 S. Highland St.
The benefit concert is open to the public and will feature the local band Walrus, which is donating its performance to MALS.
The event will begin at 6 p.m. and the concert will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person. MALS is a nonprofit law firm staffed by 20 attorneys who represent people living in Shelby, Fayette, Tipton and Lauderdale counties.
MALS deals with legal issues such as foreclosures, evictions, health care disputes, domestic violence and Social Security and veterans benefit matters.
– Taylor Shoptaw