A very busy Monday and I feel like some of this is may be fueled by some of us just now getting completely over the flu or someone close who has the flu for the first time in the New Year. Whatever the case, Monday came with a curtain call of sorts by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a court order on the Confederate monuments, year-end stats on crime in Memphis and countywide… a PILOT here, a building permit or three there.

2. Seeing Better - Friday, September 30, 2016

TAKE A LOOK OVER THERE. Over the edge of the deep porch, from rocking chairs beneath huge fans inset in the ceiling, through the dogtrot or glass walls, down the manicured lawn to the boardwalk and the boat dock’s double-wide wooden chaises, to the lake, to the treeline, to two distant office buildings, somehow disparate symbols rising as they do from a primeval forest like modern sentinel towers.

3. Homebuilders Enjoying Steady Start to 2015 - Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Shelby County homebuilding industry surged ahead in April with builders pulling more permits and selling more new homes at higher prices, a positive start to the peak building season.

Builders filed 84 permits in April, a 10.5 jump over the 76 permits filed in April 2014 and a 47.3 percent jump from the 57 permits filed in March of this year, according to real estate information company Chandler Reports, www.chandlerreports.com.

4. Men’s Salon Opening in Germantown - Friday, May 15, 2015

Germantown is getting an upscale styling salon and grooming service made just for men.

Owners Dara Vongphrachanh and Donald R. Johnson II are opening Baron’s Man Cave in 2,250 square feet in suite 102 at the Poplar Collection, located at 9289 Poplar Ave. in Germantown.

5. Mixed-Use Project Looms for Former Lakeland Mall - Friday, October 31, 2014

Get used to the name Lake District. You’ll probably be hearing more about it in the near future. Lake District is the new name for the revamped project being planned at the old Lakeland Factory Outlet Mall site.

6. Building Permits Jump 35 Percent in September - Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Shelby County homebuilding activity experienced significant gains in September when compared to the same month last year.

Builders pulled 77 permits in Shelby County in September, up 35 percent from 57 permits pulled in September 2013, according to real estate information company Chandler Reports, chandlerreports.com.

7. Tamp & Tap to Open in East Memphis - Friday, August 8, 2014

One of the newest office buildings in East Memphis has landed a popular local coffee shop and restaurant.

Tamp & Tap responded to repeated overtures from Highwoods Properties Inc. and has leased 2,785 square feet of space on the first floor of the Triad Centre III building on Poplar Avenue in East Memphis.

8. Timing Key Element of County Tax Rate Debate - Tuesday, July 1, 2014

More funding from Shelby County government for prekindergarten classrooms is a matter of timing, say those on both sides of the property tax rate question on which the $2.8 million in additional funding hinges.

9. Official: FBI to Interview Election Administrator - Friday, January 17, 2014

MEMPHIS (AP) – The FBI has told Shelby County Election Administrator Richard Holden it wants to speak with him and six other election workers about how they complete their job responsibilities, an official said Thursday.

10. Luttrell Spells Out Head Start Terms - Friday, September 20, 2013

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell confirmed weeks of speculation Wednesday, Sept. 18, saying he wants to hand off the $23 million federally funded contract county government has to provide Head Start services.

11. Luttrell Spells Out Possible County Head Start Exit - Thursday, September 19, 2013

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell made it formal Wednesday, Sept. 18, before Shelby County Commissioners.

12. MED Buys East Memphis Land for $3.4 Million - Tuesday, December 4, 2012

6525 Quince Road Memphis, TN 38119

Sale Amount: $3.4 million

Sale Date: Nov. 16, 2012

13. Gallina Centro Property Sells for $7.1 Million - Friday, November 30, 2012

An affiliate of the Phoenix-based real estate investment trust Cole Capital Advisors Inc. has paid $7.1 million for the portion of the Gallina Centro strip center in Collierville that houses HomeGoods and Michael’s.

14. Trinity Ridge Business Ctr. Sells for $7.6 Million - Tuesday, November 15, 2011

7730 Trinity Road, 7740 Trinity Road, 7750 Trinity Road, 7760 Trinity Road and 7866 Trinity Road
Cordova, TN 38018
Sale Amount: $7.6 million

15. Smaller, Greener Homes New Focus for Builders - Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The characteristics, features and sizes of new homes are evolving, according to a recent survey from the National Association of Home Builders that delves into what is anticipated for the industry by the year 2015.

16. MIFA’s Day of Reflection to Honor MLK Legacy - Friday, April 1, 2011

Memphis Inter-Faith Association will commemorate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Saturday during its 12th Annual Day of Reflection and Service.

17. Loeb Buys Park Place for $10.3M - Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Loeb Properties Inc. has bought Park Place Centre from Belz Enterprises Inc. for $10.3 million – the biggest retail transaction of the year.

18. Loeb Buys Park Place for $10.3M - Thursday, December 23, 2010

Loeb Properties Inc. has bought Park Place Centre from Belz Enterprises Inc. for $10.3 million – the biggest retail transaction of the year.

19. Shadows of Doubt - Monday, November 29, 2010

As the housing market continues to improve, a significant backlog of foreclosed and distressed properties that have not been put on the market could bring the recovery to a screeching halt.

Many lenders across the nation – mostly banks – are struggling to keep up with the overwhelming number of borrowers who have stopped making their mortgage payments. And with the fledgling recovery in housing still weak, banks, institutional investors and even some homeowners who want to sell their homes are waiting until the market shows marked improvement.

20. State Files Permit to Replace Oakhaven Driver Service Center - Tuesday, April 20, 2010

3200 E. Shelby Drive
Memphis, TN 38118
Permit Amount: $2.6 Million

Project Cost: $2.6 million
Permit Date: Applied April 2010
Completion: End of 2010
Owner: State of Tennessee
Tenant: State of Tennessee Department of Safety
Contractor: Mayer Construction Co. Inc.
Architect: Looney Ricks Kiss Architects Inc.

21. State Files Permit For DL Service Center - Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The state of Tennessee Department of Safety has filed a $2.6 million permit with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement to build a driver service center at 3200 E. Shelby Drive in Oakhaven.

22. 2009 Bankruptcy Filings Up 2 Percent - Friday, January 15, 2010

While he was at a free legal clinic last week, Memphis bankruptcy attorney Bruce Ralston struck up a conversation with a woman whose background would have made her a hot commodity once upon a time.

23. Fayette County Land Closer to Becoming Rail Hub - Monday, June 22, 2009

Norfolk Southern Corp.’s plan to develop a multimillion-dollar, multi-acre intermodal facility in Fayette County cleared a political hurdle Thursday night, moving the massive project one step closer to reality.

24. Next Stop: Norfolk Southern’s intermodal plans take shape - Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The freight trains that rumble through Memphis are hard to ignore, especially the ones that parallel or bisect main thoroughfares and disrupt traffic. But even people who don’t cross railroad tracks during their commutes are likely to hear the distant blare of horns at some point during the day as locomotives make their way into and out of the city.

25. Initiative Brings Home Closer for Downtown Workers - Thursday, August 21, 2008
Local homebuilder Grant & Co. is launching a program it hopes will entice Downtown employees to live closer to their workplaces.

The “Work Downtown, Live Downtown” promotion kicks off this week for the company’s RiverTown on the Island condominiums, providing a variety of incentives to any Downtown worker who buys a home there.

The first phase of RiverTown – on Mud Island just south of HarborTown – was recently completed. Its four buildings contain 39 units, which range from 1,200 to 3,200 square feet and in price from $199,000 to $650,000.

The company spent the past several months doing the standard billboard, radio and print marketing campaign for the development’s condos, selling 12 homes in the process. Now it hopes to jumpstart condo sales activity with this latest promotion.

Grant & Co. president Keith Grant said the company will target Downtown’s largest employers – such as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Morgan Keegan & Co., Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, AutoZone and First Tennessee.

Grant figures the Downtown work force must include a huge untapped market of people interested in living closer to their offices.

“There’s 70,000 people that work Downtown and there’s only (27,000) that live Downtown,” he said. “This is an incentive designed specifically for Downtown businesses.”

Touting the perks

The promotion will revolve around “white glove” tours starting Sept. 6 and held each weekend next month to showcase the homes and tout the benefits of living Downtown for those who already work there.

First of all, Grant said the company hopes to single out the convenience factor.

“Rather than fight the traffic, why not live in an area like the Island, where you can relax in the afternoons looking off your balcony at the Mississippi River and not have to worry about driving 30 minutes home,” he said. “You can drive five minutes home, or walk home or take the trolley home.”

Next comes the amenities on and near Mud Island, which have been enhanced in the past few years with numerous shops and services within the HarborTown development and in neighboring Uptown.

“When HarborTown first started, it started kind of slow just because they didn’t have those kinds of amenities – you didn’t have a grocery store to go to, there wasn’t a gas station, there weren’t any schools at the time, no restaurants to speak of,” Grant said. “So, it’s definitely made it a lot nicer to live on the island now that you have all that on that end of Downtown.”

Grant & Co. will offer buyers one of three incentive packages valued at $3,000 each: an appliance package that includes a refrigerator and washer/dryer; an entertainment package that includes a plasma screen TV; and a decorator package that includes a choice of multiple wall colors and blinds.

‘Building the market’

Getting people to move Downtown has proven more difficult this year. Residential sales in Downtown’s 38103 ZIP code declined 32.7 percent in the first seven months of 2008 compared to the same period last year.

Just 224 homes sold from January through July this year, down from 333 in 2007, according to the latest data from Chandler Reports, www.chandlerreports.com.

Downtown’s condo market, though still the most robust in Shelby County, decreased 33.9 percent through the end July; the year has seen 125 condo sales Downtown compared with 189 in the same period of 2007.

Condo sales Downtown did increase in July from the previous month and the same month a year ago, a positive note in the eyes of Jeff Sanford, president of the Center City Commission.

“No question, the housing market has slowed, but I would suggest that Downtown has fared better than other parts of the community,” Sanford said. “One, apartment occupancy rates have held over 90 percent. Secondly, the number of condos being sold Downtown – while short of what they were in comparable periods two and three years ago – nonetheless are showing strength. These are not the best of times, but Downtown is more than holding its own.”

How much it continues to hold its own remains to be seen. While Grant & Co. harbors long-term plans for RiverTown of bringing 200 homes to the site, that is on hold until sales of existing units pick up.

Grant said he hopes the latest promotion brings the needed spark.

“One of the reasons we developed it the way we did with multiple buildings was so we could continue at a pace that fits the market,” Grant said. “Some people have to put up a building with 50 or more units in it, then what happens is you encounter a slower market like we’re in now and you slash prices to move property. In our situation, we’re building to the market. We’ll start new buildings as we sell the homes that we have now.”

26. Events - Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Leadership Bartlett Class of 2008 will graduate today at 6 p.m. at Jim’s Place East, 5560 Shelby Oaks Drive.

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens will host a “Hands-On Leaf Casting Workshop” Friday from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Dixon, 4339 Park Ave. Gardener Pat Skaggs and the Dixon staff will provide materials and instructions for casting leaves. Participants will return at a later date to pick up the cured castings they make. Bring your own leaf, or leaves will be provided. The cost is $20 for Dixon members or $25 for nonmembers. Pre-registration is required by calling the Dixon at 761-5252.

27. Porter-Leath Snags Head Start Contract - Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Shelby County Commissioners Monday approved a contract with Porter-LeathChildren's Center to provide Head Start services to 460 children.

The number of children in the contract between Porter-Leath and county government represented a compromise from 1,120 in the initial contract proposal. And the compromise followed an emotional and often bitter debate about who should teach children enrolled in the early child care program and how many children they should teach.

28. Local Officials Study Handling of Public Properties - Monday, October 31, 2005

At a press conference in August, it was easy to overlook what Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton had to say about the city's 5,387 acres of parkland.

The crowd that day at City Hall had come for a different reason. They wanted to hear what Herenton thought should happen to three Downtown parks with ties to Confederate history. His answer to that controversy - which got much local coverage and even some national attention - overshadowed what he said could be done with some of the other 187 city-owned parks.

29. Shelby Officials to Set Real Estate Strategy - Friday, September 9, 2005

Over the next few months, Shelby County officials will borrow a page from the playbook of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

BRAC - a national task force that has been studying ways to reshape the military's infrastructure - finished its work this month by recommending the closure and realignment of major bases across the country. Shelby County leaders want to apply that same idea to the county's bulging real estate portfolio: It currently includes more than 3,200 properties, about 2,000 of which were bought for a specific use and about 1,200 of which are delinquent tax parcels.

30. Archived Article: This Week - Monday, February 21, 2005
City Park Services Director Reveals Plan for Wolf River Greenway

Wolf River Conservancy Hosts Annual Meeting

Feb. 21

The Institute of Real Estate Management presents IREM RES201: Successful Site Management from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the...

31. Archived Article: Events - Friday, February 18, 2005
The Shelby County Housing Authority meets at 3 p

The Shelby County Housing Authority meets at 3 p.m. today at the Shelby County Construction Code Enforcement Office, 6465 Mullins Station Road. Call 545-4588. The Memphis Advertising Federation pre...

32. Archived Article: Ss (lead) - Tuesday, February 4, 2003
New homes on tap for local Social Security offices

New homes on tap for local Social Security offices

By ANDREW BELL

The Daily News

Politicians wrangle over the future of Social Security, but plans for Memphis operations are set.

Cons...

33. Archived Article: Real Review - Tuesday, May 1, 2001
Home sale prices outpace Home sale prices outpace 2000 first quarter numbers First quarter statistics for Memphis area show home sales prices continue to outpace figures for the first quarter of last year, said officials at the Memphis Area Associat...

34. Archived Article: Real Briefs - Tuesday, April 11, 2000
Memphis City Council member Brent Taylor was elected vice chairman of the Chickasaw Basin Authority Memphis City Council member Brent Taylor was elected vice chairman of the Chickasaw Basin Authority. The Chickasaw Basin Authority is composed of may...

35. Archived Article: Real Review Lj - Tuesday, May 18, 1999
Real Review 5-18-99 Real estate review American Mall of Memphis LLC, a subsidiary of California-based American Mall Properties LLC, purchased the Mall of Memphis Friday. The company plans to revitalize the 1.1 million-square-foot mall, located at In...

36. Archived Article: 3Q apts - Wednesday, October 28, 1998
Apartment construction for the third quarter is riding the ripple effect of the boom in the housing industry and shows no sign of letting up Multifamily construction thrives in third quarter By KATHLEEN BURT The Daily News Apartment construction for...

37. Archived Article: Pleasant Place Lj - Wednesday, May 13, 1998
By LAURIE JOHNSON Subdivision to boost Millington market By LAURIE JOHNSON The Daily News Site work is underway on the first phase of a subdivision in Millington that will increase opportunities for home buyers looking for move-up housing. Pleasant ...

38. Archived Article: Arby's Chg - Friday, April 17, 1998
Atlanta Arby's franchisee Atlanta company to open Mrs. Winner's on Shelby RTM Restaurant Group has plans to open four more Mrs. Winner's in the Memphis market By CAMILLE H. GAMBLE The Daily News Atlanta-based RTM Restaurant Group, the largest franch...

39. Archived Article: Graph - Thursday, February 26, 1998
Warranty Deeds Warranty Deeds Susa Partnership has purchased four mini-storage facilities in the Memphis area. The addresses and sales prices of the property transfers, according to warranty deeds filed in the Shelby County Register's Office: Cordov...

40. Archived Article: 3rd Qtr Apart Chg - Monday, October 14, 1996
Third quarter apartment Third quarter apartment starts highest since 1980s By CAMILLE H. GAMBLE The Daily News New apartment construction in Shelby County peaked in the third quarter compared to third quarters for the past five years, with building ...

41. Archived Article: Berryhill Farms Lj - Wednesday, August 7, 1996
lj 10/5 cates Berryhill Farms continues to expand in Cordova By LAURIE JOHNSON The Daily News Site preparation is expected to begin within several weeks on the first phases of two new subdivisions in Berryhill Farms, an extensive development which h...

42. Archived Article: Windward Hills Lj - Friday, July 5, 1996
lj 10/5 cates Construction to begin on 177-acre Windward Hills in Lakeland By LAURIE JOHNSON The Daily News Bulldozers are scheduled to begin rolling within the next three weeks on Windward Hills, GGM Development LLCs first residential subdivision i...

43. Archived Article: Back - Wednesday, June 12, 1996
Memphis driver license Memphis driver license station relocates to Park The state Department of Safety driver license station at 1299 Madison Ave. will be relocated beginning Monday. The new facility will be at 3516 Park Ave., not far from the prese...

44. Archived Article: Real Fcs (col Fest) Lj - Tuesday, April 16, 1996
lj 10/5 cates Colliervilles 10th annual festival of homes to showcase Rosewood Plantation By LAURIE JOHNSON The Daily News This weekend thousands of Mid-Southerners will be accepting Colliervilles invitation to "experience the wonderful life.&q...