Hickory Hill Apts. Sell for $7.25M

Orlando, Fla.-based Cedar Mill LLC has bought the 227-unit Cedar Mill Apartments in Hickory Hill North’s 38115 ZIP code from Mid-America Apartments LP for $7.25 million. Cedar Mill LLC filed a $7.25 million trust deed through 2589738 Manitoba Ltd. The transactions closed Thursday, Feb. 9.

Cedar Mill is a Class C complex of 209 apartments and 68 townhouses built in 1974. It is on two parcels totaling about 14 acres on the west side of South Mendenhall Road north of Winchester Road. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2011 appraisal is $3.3 million.

For seller Mid-America Apartments LP, the property has been the center of a couple of transactions over more than a decade. In 1999, Mid-America Apartments sold the property to BRE/MAAC Cedar Mill LLC for $10.9 million. Then the two entities combined, keeping the Mid-America Apartments LP name, and now is selling the property under the Mid-America Apartments name.

The Orlando address listed for Cedar Mill LLC is a private residence.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

IP-Temple Merger Gets DOJ Approval

The antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice has reached an agreement on the merger of International Paper Co. and Temple-Inland Inc. in a federal court consent decree that involves the sale of three paper mills.

The agreement clears the way for Memphis-based IP to formally acquire Austin-based Temple-Inland.

The terms of the consent decree spell out a post-merger divestiture of two Temple-Inland containerboard mills in Ontario, Calif.; and New Johnsonville, Tenn.; and an IP mill in Heuneme, Calif. The three mills account for 970,000 tons of containerboard capacity.

The merged company has four months to sell the plants with options for two 30-day extensions.

– Bill Dries

CBRE Memphis Brokers Florida Investment Sale

CB Richard Ellis Memphis has brokered the sale of the Grand Panama Office Building in Panama City Beach, Fla., from Grand Panama Office LLC to Corr Properties I LLC for $3.7 million, or $137.80 per square foot.

Anchored by the Royal Bank of Canada, the four-story building contains approximately 37,621 square feet of office condominium space.

The transaction included floors two, three and four, consisting of 26,852 square feet of the 100 percent occupied space.

The CBRE Memphis investment sales team, including Johnny Lamberson, Frank Quinn and Terry Radford, in conjunction with Chris McCall of Counts Real Estate, represented the seller.

– Sarah Baker

HR Professionals Present Seminar at Crescent Club

HR Professionals of Greater Memphis, in partnership with the Society for Human Resource Management-Memphis, will present a seminar on Thursday, Feb. 16, at the Crescent Club on “Strategic Leadership for HR Executives.”

The seminar will be from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and a wine and cheese reception will follow. The keynote speaker will be Bob Radecki, president of Benefit Comply LLC, a health- and welfare-plan compliance consulting firm in Minneapolis. Other speakers will include Memphis attorney Jenny Kiesewetter as well as DataFacts Inc. Vice President Lisa May.

Sponsors are Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance, DataFacts Inc., Kiesewetter Law Firm, Jackson Lewis LLP and Christian Brothers University. The cost is $45 for SHRM members and $50 for non-SHRM members.

Registration deadline is Monday, Feb. 13, and pre-registration is required. Visit www.hrprosmemphis.com to register.

– Andy Meek

Former CBRE Exec Barton Joins Memphis-Based EdR

Scott Barton has joined EdR, a student housing real estate investment trust based in Memphis, as vice president of real estate acquisitions.

Barton previously worked for CB Richard Ellis Memphis as senior vice president of retail service. He was with the commercial real estate firm for more than nine years.

EdR – formerly known as Education Realty Trust Inc. – has had a busy few months, ending fourth-quarter 2011 with several new properties in hand and starting 2012 by turning over a new leaf entirely with a new name, a new logo, new positions for several key executives and a $28 million acquisition in St. Louis.

– Sarah Baker

Exchange Club to Host Annual 'Hands of Hope'

The Exchange Club Family Center will host its annual Hands of Hope Auction Party March 3 in The Columns at One Commerce Square in Downtown.

The event will kick off at 7 p.m. with emcee Steve Conley, and will include a silent and live auction, live music and interactive light show provided by DJ Mark Anderson, dancing, gourmet food stations and a cash bar. Tickets are $90 for individuals and $160 for couples.

The Exchange Club is a Midtown nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the cycle of child abuse. The Hands of Hope Auction Party is the organization’s largest annual fundraiser. Tickets can be purchased by calling 276-2200.

– Taylor Shoptaw

Firehouse Subs Donates to Germantown Fire Dept.

Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation will donate much-needed materials – otherwise unavailable due to fire district budget constraints – to the Germantown Fire Department during a ceremony at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 13, at Firehouse Subs, 7685 Farmington Blvd.

The department will receive hazardous materials training DVDs and manuals worth $11,332, which will help prepare firefighters to successfully complete the Tennessee Commission on Fire Fighting firefighter certification exams.

Firehouse Subs, founded in Jacksonville, Fla., by former firefighting brothers Chris Sorensen and Robin Sorensen, in 2005 created the nonprofit Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.

– Aisling Maki

Report: Energy Loans Could Cost $3B

An independent review finds the government could lose about $3 billion on Energy Department loans for green energy programs – far less than the $10 billion Congress set aside for the high-risk program.

The White House ordered the review after criticism of a $528 million loan to Solyndra Inc., a solar company that went bankrupt.

The review was led by former Treasury Department official Herb Allison. He looked at 30 loans or loan guarantees totaling $23.8 billion that were offered to green energy companies and automakers like Ford and Nissan. The review did not involve Solyndra.

– The Associated Press

Obama: Birth Control Policy Meets Everyone’s Needs

President Barack Obama declared Friday, Feb. 10, he’s found a solution to a birth-control uproar that will protect religious liberty but also ensure that women have access to free contraception, as he rushed to defuse an election-year issue that threatened to overtake his administration.

Capping weeks of controversy, Obama announced he was backing off a newly announced requirement for religious employers to provide free birth control coverage even if it runs counter to their religious beliefs. Instead, workers at such institutions will be able to get free contraception directly from health insurance companies.

Although the administration had originally given itself more than a year to work out the details of the new birth control coverage requirement for religious employers, the president acknowledged that the situation had become untenable and demanded a swift solution.

Congressional Republicans as well as GOP presidential hopefuls were beating up on Obama relentlessly over the issue, and even Democrats and liberal groups allied with the Roman Catholic church were defecting.

Women will still get guaranteed access to birth control without co-pays or premiums no matter where they work. But universities and hospitals that see contraception as an unconscionable violation of their faith can refuse to cover it.

– The Associated Press