ACE Hardware Slated For Quince Station Center

Santa Ana, Calif.-based Red Mountain Retail Group, the owner of the Quince Station Shopping Center, has filed a $650,000 permit application with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement to build an ACE Hardware store.

The center is at the southeast corner of Quince and South White Station roads. The formal address for the forthcoming ACE store is 5143 Quince Road, where Hancock Fabrics burned down earlier this year.

Quince Station is anchored by a Walgreens on the west side and Billy Hardwick’s All Star Lanes bowling alley on the east. Other tenants include Dollar General, Subway, Three Little Pigs BBQ and Hancock Fabrics, which moved to the space that originally was slated for ACE.

The ACE Hardware store will include 12,400 square feet – 10,600 square feet of retail space with 1,800 square feet for an outdoor garden center.

Red Mountain Retail Group operates locally as Quince Ave. Memphis LLC. The contractor for the project is Belfor USA Group Inc. of Birmingham, Mich.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Eric Smith

Medtronic Q2 Profit Rises 59 Percent

Medtronic Inc. reported a surprising 59 percent boost in second-quarter profit Tuesday, as increased sales of implantable heart devices defied reports of weakening demand from competitors.

The sales gains during the quarter prompted the world’s largest medical device maker to raise its full-year guidance.

The Minneapolis-based company, whose Spinal and Biologics Business is based in Memphis, earned $868 million, or 78 cents per share, in the quarter ended Oct. 30, up from $547 million, or 48 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding a litigation gain and other items, adjusted income totaled $850 million, or 77 cents per share.

Revenue jumped 8 percent to $3.84 billion from $3.57 billion.

Analysts expected profit of 74 cents per share on revenue of $3.75 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

It was the second consecutive quarter in which the company beat Wall Street expectations.

“Sales outperformance could suggest market share stabilization after several consecutive quarters of erosion in these business,” Leerink Swann analyst Rick Wise wrote in a note to investors.

Sales for the company’s cardiac-pacing division, its largest, have been sluggish following safety concerns and reduced spending by hospitals.

Analysts largely expected another quarter of slow sales after rivals St. Jude Medical and Boston Scientific Corp. reported weakening demand for heart implants earlier this fall.

But Medtronic reported a 3 percent rise in sales of heart devices to $1.28 billion, including $754 million in sales of implantable cardioverter defibrillators, the company’s best-selling products.

Meanwhile, spinal revenue rose 4 percent to $862 million, beating growth in the past three of four quarters.

Sales for the company’s second-largest unit have mostly disappointed analysts, following difficulties integrating spine repair company Kyphon, a former competitor that Medtronic acquired in 2007.

– The Associated Press

State Approves Hospitals, Nursing Home

The Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency has granted certificates of approval for new specialty hospitals in Memphis and extended the time for a construction project at a Bartlett nursing home.

In Memphis, the agency gave AmeriCare Health Properties LLC permission to relocate part of a rehabilitation center at a cost of $8.64 million and to move its long-term specialty hospital at a cost of $7.62 million.

AmeriCare will relocate 90 of its 237 nursing home beds from 3391 Old Getwell Road to a new facility that will be built at the northwest corner of Kirby Parkway and Kirby Gate Boulevard. The new facility will operate under a different name, Oaktree Health Rehabilitation Center.

Memphis Long Term Care Specialty Hospital LLC will keep its name when the 24-bed facility is moved to the same location as AmeriCare’s rehabilitation center. The facilities are being moved to the 10-acre site.

In Bartlett, the agency extended the expiration date for one year until Aug. 1, 2011, on a certificate of need for Ave Maria Home to replace its 35-bed east wing with four homes, each with 10 beds. The project cost is $6.37 million.

– Tom Wilemon

Family Donates $1 Million to St. Jude

John Tully and Andra Tully, the parents of Helen Tully, have donated $1 million to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in celebration of the child’s second birthday.

The family lives in Latvia, where John Tully is a business owner and Andra Tully is a lawyer. They brought their child to Memphis from the European nation after a doctor there told them that their daughter had little chance of recovery.

Helen Tully was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma when she was 9 months old. After more than a year of treatment at St. Jude, she is free of cancer.

Half of the gift, which was given in memory of John Tully’s father, John Tully Sr., will go toward research and care of rhabdomyosarcoma patients for the next three years. The other half of the gift will be applied to areas of greatest need as determined by the hospital.

Helen Tully visits St. Jude every three months for scans. Her father grew up in Memphis and her grandmother still lives here.

– Tom Wilemon

Habitat Receives $250K Grant For Trinity Park Subdivision

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis has received a $250,000 grant from The Assisi Foundation of Memphis Inc. for its 38-home subdivision, Trinity Park.

Trinity Park will provide affordable housing in a safe and sustainable community.

Located in the Oakhaven neighborhood near Memphis International Airport, Trinity Park will include 38 single-family residences that will be built to green standards as certified through the Memphis Light Gas and Water Division EcoBUILD program.

The Assisi Foundation’s grant places Memphis Habitat within $13,000 of its $3 million goal.

– Taylor Shoptaw

Memphis Bar Gives $8K To Exchange Club Center

The Exchange Club Family Center has received an $8,000 grant from the Memphis Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Memphis Bar Association.

The Exchange Club Family Center was selected because its programs support the foundation’s mission to advocate and support public awareness of the legal system as well as promote social justice and legal education.

The Exchange Club Family Center will use the grant money to support its Supervised Visitation Services. The visitation services allow children a supervised location for visitation with non-residential parents.

The Exchange Club Family Center is a nonprofit agency dedicated to ending the cycle of child abuse and domestic violence.

– Taylor Shoptaw