Cordova Jason's Deli Financed for $1.1M

Deliworx Building Partners LLC has filed two loans totaling $1.1 million for property at 1585 Chickering Lane through First National Bank of Oxford. The $935,000 and $157,123 loans are both dated June 2011, and both mature in June 2016.

The property is the site of a 5,278-square-foot Jason’s Deli restaurant built in 1998 on about 1 acre at the southwest corner of Chickering Lane and Chickering Cove. The site is west of North Germantown Parkway in The Commons of Dexter Lake Planned Development.

Cyn-Jen LLC bought the vacant parcel in 1998 for $406,642 and built the deli that year. In 2005, Cyn-Jen merged with Deliworx Building Partners. Kevin M. Patterson signed the merger document as vice president of both Cyn-Jen and Deliworx. He also signed the recent loan documents.

The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2011 appraisal is $1 million.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Kate Simone

WCR Memphis Chapter Receives National Honor

The Memphis Chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors has been recognized nationally for its outstanding recruitment efforts.

The WCR Memphis Chapter won first place in recruitment in the large chapter category by National WCR during the recent National Association of Realtors mid-year convention in Washington.

The Memphis Chapter recruited 33 new national members from Jan. 1 through March 31, bringing its total to 79. National WCR has about 280 local chapters and about 70 are in the large chapter category (50 to 79 members).

“We have won national awards for excellent performance, but this particular award is a first for our chapter and we are very proud,” 2011 WCR Memphis Chapter president Regina Hubbard said in a statement. “Membership is thriving and I think one reason is we try to lead through our actions – whether that’s supporting the Youth Villages 5K or raising money for breast cancer research.”

WCR was formed in 1938 to promote equality for female agents at a time when many local real estate boards were resistant to offering memberships to women. It is the 12th-largest women’s professional organization in the United States. The Memphis Chapter was chartered in 1948.

– Sarah Baker

Cohen Introduces Consumer Debt Bill

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, has introduced the Fair Debt Collection Improvement Act, a bill that would bar debt collectors from bringing legal action on debt when the statute of limitations has expired against a consumer.

Once the statute of limitations has expired on a debt, generally after 10 years or so, many creditors write off the debt but sell it at a fraction of the value to a debt collector. Most courts hold that a creditor or successor creditor can’t sue to collect a time-barred debt, but it’s not illegal to pursue those debts through other means.

Some states also re-start the clock if a consumer makes even a partial payment on the debt. Cohen’s bill would ensure that any debt collector that purchases time-barred debt on the secondary market informs the debtor that the new debt collector now holds the debt; because the debt falls outside the statute of limitations, the debt collector may not sue to collect the debt; and if applicable under state law, any payment toward the debt may revive the entire debt.

– Andy Meek

Saint Francis Hospital Awarded for Excellence

Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis was recognized by the Aster Awards for marketing excellence in health care last week.

The hospital received three Gold Awards in the categories of Multilingual Advertising-Single, Service Line-Orthopedics and Patient Education. The hospital was judged in a national competition among other hospitals with more than 500 beds.

Marketing Healthcare Today and Creative Images Inc. are the hosts of the Aster Awards, which is one of the largest of its kind. This elite program recognized exceptional health care professionals for excellence in advertising and marketing efforts in the calendar year of 2011.

The 2011 Aster Awards judging was based on creativity, layout and design, functionality, message effectiveness, production quality and overall appeal.

All winners are posted on the Aster Awards’ website www.AsterAwards.com, and are

published in Marketing Healthcare Today, a national healthcare marketing magazine.

– Houston Cofield

Nonresidential Construction Spending Inches Up in May

Despite a downturn in overall construction spending, private nonresidential construction spending increased 1.2 percent in May, according to the July 1 report by the U.S. Census Bureau.

However, private nonresidential construction is down 5.1 percent from the same time last year.

Total nonresidential construction spending – which includes both privately and publicly financed construction – was $516.1 billion in May, up 0.1 percent for the month but down 6.9 percent from May 2010.

Eight of the 16 nonresidential construction subsectors posted increases in spending in May, with the biggest gains experienced in power (up 3.6 percent), sewage and waste disposal (up 3.6 percent higher), conservation and development (up 3.5 percent), and lodging (up 2.8 percent).

In contrast, eight subsectors experienced decreases for the month, including religious construction (down 3.8 percent), communication (down 2.6 percent), and educational construction (down 2.6 percent).

Public nonresidential construction spending slipped 0.8 percent in May and is down 9.1 percent year-over-year. Residential construction spending fell 2.1 percent for the month and is down 6.9 percent from the same time last year.

“The economic improvement that we had observed through March of this year has translated into better privately financed construction activity,” Associated Builders and Contractors chief economist Anirban Basu said in a statement. “Private nonresidential construction spending expanded in May even as public nonresidential construction declined and the nation’s housing sector continues to swoon.”

– Sarah Baker

UT Health Science Center Launches New Cardiology Program

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center this month launches an Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program certified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Interventional Cardiology is a subspecialty of cardiology in which the physician provides catheter–based treatment of vascular and structural heart diseases. Each of the physicians accepted into the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program will have already completed three years of ACGME-accredited fellowship training in cardiovascular diseases.

One of only two ACGME-accredited interventional cardiology initiatives in Tennessee, the program each year will provide one talented physician with focused training in coronary, peripheral and structural heart procedures, as well as neurovascular procedures.

Training of the interventional cardiology fellows will be based at Methodist University Hospital, a primary teaching affiliate of UTHSC. Successful completion of the one-year program will allow trainees to be eligible to appear for the American Board of Internal Medicine certification examination in Interventional Cardiology.

“The primary training site, Methodist University Hospital, will be one of the premier centers in the nation for advanced interventional cardiology training,” said Dr. Santhosh Koshy, associate professor of Medicine at UTHSC, director of the new Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program and director of UT Cardiology Services at Methodist Hospital.

In 2009, the American College of Cardiology Workforce Workgroup estimated a shortage of cardiologists that’s projected to worsen in the next two decades.

According to UTHSC, Coronary artery disease is the nation’s leading cause of death. The total cost of cardiovascular disease in 2010 was $503.2 billion. The growing patient population suffering from coronary artery disease and the desire to treat patients with minimally invasive options has driven growth in interventional procedures, which continue to displace the more invasive surgical procedures.

– Aisling Maki