Jubilee COGIC Moves to Stage Road Site

     Jubilee Church of God in Christ has bought a church site at 4555 Stage Road in Raleigh and plans to hold its first service at the site Easter Sunday.
     The congregation bought the property from Stage Road Church of Christ Inc. for $1.1 million, financing it with a $1.1 million loan through California Baptist Foundation and a $232,000 loan through Stage Road Church of Christ. The deal closed Tuesday.
     The $1.1 million loan is secured by the Stage Road property, the congregation's current location at 4029 Frayser Raleigh Road and another site at 4017 Raleigh-Millington Road. The $232,000 loan is secured by the Stage and Frayser Raleigh properties, according to loan documents.
     The Stage Road church sits on 9.74 acres on the south side of Stage east of Coleman Road. Stage Road Church of Christ bought the property in June 1998 for $1.1 million.
     Jubilee bought the new site because it has outgrown its current property on Frayser Raleigh Road, said Jubilee real estate personnel Ziva Walker.
     "Our ministry has grown tremendously and we needed to expand," Walker said. "I think our other property held maybe 300 in the sanctuary, and this one holds around 550, 600."
     Jubilee's congregation plans a march Sunday from the Frayser Raleigh site to the Stage Road property 1.9 miles away. The church's first service on Stage will be 10 a.m. Sunday.
     "We're excited about going out into the community, basically reaching almost the same community, but you know, we're expecting now - because we're closer to Bartlett ... to hopefully be picking up more from the Bartlett area," Walker said.
     

February a Slow Month For Commercial Sales

     Shelby County's commercial sales declined 16.8 percent in February from the same month last year, according to the latest data from real estate information company Chandler Reports, www.chandlerreports.com. Just 79 commercial transactions were recorded in the month, down from the 95 in February 2007.
     But that drop paled in comparison to the dips in total dollar amount and average sales amount when compared to the same month last year, which benefited from some large, lucrative deals.
     In February, the total amount was $44.6 million, a staggering 79.8 decline from the $220.5 million registered in February 2007. And the average sales amount of $564,583 marked a 75.7 percent decline from the average sales amount of $2.2 million in February 2007.
     From February 2007 to February 2008, the average square footage per sale dipped 76.6 percent, from 65,312 square feet to 15,302 square feet, while the price per square foot fell only 5.4 percent, from $39.21 per foot to $37.20.
     For February 2008, the leading ZIP code in terms of number of sales was the 38118 ZIP of Oakhaven/Parkway Village with seven, while the leading ZIP for average sales amount was the 38115 ZIP of Hickory Hill North with two sales averaging $3.4 million.
     The dropoff in terms of the number of sales was more drastic for February 2008 compared to January 2008, which had 110 transactions totaling $148.2 million for an average sales amount of $1.3 million. That equaled declines of 28.2 percent for number of sales, 44.6 percent for total sales amount and 57 percent for average sales amount.
     Year-to-date totals also are off. Through February 2008, there have been 189 commercial sales totaling $192.8 million. That's a 12.5 percent decrease from the 216 sales totaling $220.5 million registered through February 2007.
     

Bass Pro Shops CEO Visits Memphis

     Bass Pro Shops president and CEO Jim Hagale visited Memphis Thursday for a series of private meetings with local elected leaders. It is Hagale's first direct involvement in the negotiations with the city and county to build a Bass Pro Shops store and other attractions in The Pyramid.
     Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton Jr. confirmed for The Daily News his meeting with Hagale.
     Hagale also had one-on-one meetings scheduled Thursday with several members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and a sit-down with Memphis City Council chairman Scott McCormick.
     Spokesmen from Bass Pro Shops could not be reached to comment on the Memphis visit.
     No public meetings between Hagale and the elected officials were scheduled. But Hagale's one-on-one meetings with council members and commissioners would not be covered by the Tennessee open meetings law. Meetings with one or both mayors also are not covered by the law.
     City Council members and county commissioners visited Bass Pro headquarters in Springfield, Mo., earlier this year, but the look around the super store did not include a meeting with Hagale.
     In the last month, some commissioners and council members have complained they have not heard anything from Hagale or other Bass Pro executives. Robert Lipscomb, who has been the lead negotiator for both governments in the talks with Bass Pro, has said local government sought out Bass Pro with a proposal that the company locate in the arena as a result of a Pyramid reuse study.
     

Four Foreclosures Filed Against Alexanders

     Four first-run foreclosure notices for properties owned by Charles Alexander or his wife, Patricia Alexander, appear in today's Daily News starting on Page 25.
     Charles Alexander is listed as the property owner on three of the foreclosures: 1553 Airways Blvd., 1240 Chelsea Ave. and 1981 Belmar St. Patricia Alexander is listed as the owner on a property at 523 Charter Ave. Oakland Deposit Bank is listed as an interested party in the Charter Avenue foreclosure.
     The Chelsea Avenue and Belmar Street properties are subject to an Internal Revenue Service tax lien filed in October 2006 for $1,247.10.
     The Alexanders have seen more than 50 foreclosure notices filed since the middle of February for properties they own. Attempts to reach them by phone have been unsuccessful.
     For more information on earlier foreclosure notices filed against the Alexanders, visit www.memphisdailynews.com.
     

Unemployment Filings See Two-Month High

     The number of newly laid-off workers filing for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in nearly two months, providing more evidence that the weak economy is having an adverse impact on the labor market.
     The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless benefits totaled 378,000 last week. That was an increase of 22,000 from the previous week and was a far bigger jump than had been expected.
     The four-week average for new claims rose to 365,250, which was the highest level since a flood of claims caused by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes.
     The current economic slowdown, which many economists believe already has turned into a full-blown recession, is starting to show up in the labor market in terms of higher layoffs and weaker hiring numbers.
     The total number of payroll jobs fell by 63,000 in February, an even bigger decline than the drop of 22,000 jobs in January, which had been the first monthly decline since mid-2003.