Delta Metals Files Permit to Install Solar Panels

Delta Metals Co. Inc. has filed a $1 million permit application with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement to add solar panels on its manufacturing facility at 1388 N. Seventh St. The permit description states it is for installation of solar panels on the building’s roof by using clamps, which will not cause any structural alterations to the building.

Delta Metals Co. Inc. occupies a 213,547-square-foot manufacturing/processing building built in 1957, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property. The building, which is owned by Delta Storage & Transfer Co. General Partnership, sits on 9.7 acres on the east side of North Seventh Street near its intersection with North Second Street, south of Plum Avenue in Weakley Subdivision. The east side of the property backs up to a railroad line.

Delta Metals is a steel service center that stocks, slits, levels and blanks steel for customers in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri, according to the company’s website. Besides the Seventh Street property, Delta owns two warehouses that total 100,000 square feet at 1185 Nicholas St., which is less than a mile southeast of the Seventh Street site.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Kate Simone

FedEx Subsidiary Expands with Three New Offices

FedEx Trade Networks, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., has announced three new freight-forwarding offices in Europe and Asia.

They are in Munich; Bucharest, Romania; and Chengdu, China. The subsidiary of the Memphis-based company said in a news release it has opened 41 offices outside the U.S. and Canada since 2008.

FedEx Trade Networks offers ocean and air international freight forwarding and other services.

– The Associated Press

MAAG Receives Grant for Tourism Promotion

The Memphis Area Association of Governments has been awarded a five-year, $159,250 endowment grant from the Tennessee Department of Tourism to develop and implement a regional tourism promotion plan.

Grant provisions designate MAAG as the South Central Regional Tourism Organization representing Shelby, Tipton, Fayette and Lauderdale counties.

MAAG will utilize the grant to promote tourism opportunities in an effort to augment existing regional economic developments efforts.

MAAG serves as a regional clearinghouse to county governments in Fayette, Lauderdale, Shelby and Tipton in Tennessee; Desoto in Mississippi; and Crittenden in Arkansas for federal and state programs in support of economic, housing and community development initiatives. MAAG works closely with member governments and nonprofit organizations to identify, craft and lobby for legislation and public policy that serves to improve the overall quality of life for residents.

– Taylor Shoptaw

Urban Child Institute Studies Memphis’ Immigrant Children

The Memphis-based Urban Child Institute, 600 Jefferson Ave., says the growing racial and ethnic diversity of young children in Memphis reflects national trends. Children younger than 5 today are the most diverse group of Americans.

This month, Memphis children who at home speak Arabic, Chinese, French, Fulah, Nepali, Somali, Spanish and Swahili are starting kindergarten.

The institute is looking at how the rising number of young children raised in immigrant families affects early brain development and lifetime wellbeing of children in Memphis.

Growing up in an immigrant family poses special challenges to young children. Recent research from Harvard University and the Russell Sage Foundation suggests immigrant families face ongoing parental stress and economic hardship. They are also more likely to avoid center-based child care, and the result can be poorly developed cognitive skills that are recognizable in children as young as 2 years old.

– Aisling Maki

Tenn. Agencies Looking at 30 Pct. Spending Cuts

Tennessee state agencies are assembling plans to cut up to 30 percent from their budgets in preparation for reductions in federal spending.

A letter from Finance Commissioner Mark Emkes calls on agency heads to submit two sets of plans by Wednesday: one for cutting 15 percent and another for reducing spending by 30 percent.

Emkes said in the letter that national credit rating agencies have asked the state to present plans of how it will respond to deep cuts in federal funds, which make up about 40 percent of Tennessee’s annual budget.

“While it is not possible for the state to know now what specific program reductions will be implemented by the federal government, we must plan,” Emkes wrote in the letter dated Thursday, Aug. 18.

– The Associated Press

Bank of America to Ax 10,000 or More Jobs

Bank of America Corp., the nation’s largest bank, said Friday, Aug. 19, that it plans to cut 3,500 jobs by the end of September.

The cuts amount to a little more than 1 percent of the bank’s workforce of roughly 288,000. But they follow a string of other layoffs, including 2,500 already announced this year.

A bank spokesman declined to say if the cuts would be concentrated in a particular part of the country, but said they would be spread across most of the business units.

“The company regularly assesses the efficiency of its businesses and at times is going to make adjustments to meet the opportunities that are in the marketplace,” said spokesman Scott Silvestri. The bank has previously cut jobs in the mortgage lending and investment banking, for example, after demand for those services slowed.

Silvestri said the layoffs were not part of “New BAC,” a cost-cutting program announced in May.

After this round of layoffs, the bank should have about 284,000 employees. Its roster peaked in early 2009, right after it absorbed investment bank Merrill Lynch and mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, at about 302,000.

– The Associated Press

Mercer Capital Adds Financial Analysts

Memphis-based Mercer Capital has added two financial analysts to its staff.

Mary Grace McQuiston is a graduate of The University of the South at Sewanee with a bachelor of arts degree in economics. Michael Sandler has a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Vanderbilt.

As financial analysts at Mercer, they will provide business valuation and financial consulting services to public and private companies and financial institutions around the country.

Mercer is a national business valuation and financial advisory services firm.

– Andy Meek

LRK Awarded for Design of CA2

Looney Ricks Kiss recently received a Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects-Tennessee Chapter during the 2011 Design Awards of Excellence for LRK’s design of Court Annex Two (CA2)

The awards program celebrates the design accomplishments of architects across the state while recognizing the architects’ role in shaping the quality of life through design excellence.

When the original, 100-year-old building was destroyed by fire, CGI Partners Court Square Center LLC challenged LRK to bring new design that interpreted the site in a modern way.

Facing Court Square Park and located on one of the city’s four original public squares now within a National Historic District, the design team took the scale and forms of the district into account while manipulating modern building materials into a form compatible with its historic context.

CA2 is a 32,000-square-foot, five-story, mixed-use building with ground-floor office and retail, as well as 16 upper-story residences.

CA2 also achieved U.S. Green Building Council LEED NC Gold status, making it the first residential building in Memphis with Gold certification. LEED NC stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-New Construction.

The project is fully leased.

Based in Memphis, LRK also has offices in Princeton, N.J.; Celebration, Fla.; and Baton Rouge. The firm consists of architects, designers and planners.

– Sarah Baker