In-Rel Closes On Quince Office Building

In-Rel Management Inc. has bought the 123,924-square-foot office building at 6555 Quince Road in the Quince/Ridgeway area of Southeast Memphis for $5 million in a special warranty deed.

The company, operating in the transaction as 6555 Quince Building Owner LLC, bought the property Dec. 7 from BACM 2000-2 Quince Road LLC, an entity related to Miami-based LNR Partners Inc.

Completed in 1989, the building sits on 5.94 acres at the southwest corner of Quince Road and Kirby Parkway near Tenn. 385. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2009 appraisal is $8.5 million.

Formerly known as the “Comcast Building,” the property was hit hard when Comcast relocated. It now will be called Quince Centre, according to a release from Lake Worth, Fla.-based In-Rel, which has an office in Memphis. The company’s local portfolio includes about 1.4 million square feet of office space, including the Clark Tower and Lynnfield Office Park.

Ron Riley, executive vice president for In-Rel’s local office, said this acquisition “fits in very nicely with our existing portfolio and gives us the opportunity to tap into the 385 corridor and its current tenant base.”

Quince Centre has 15 tenants and is 45 percent leased. The company is looking to rebrand the building and hoping to take advantage of being close to Tenn. 385, a key highway that runs through the most populous parts of Memphis.

“The location is a perfect complement to our other properties in Memphis, but we think the building is in need of a clearly established identity after Comcast’s relocation, thus the renaming it Quince Centre,” Frazier Baker, In-Rel’s director of leasing, said in a release.

The Class A office building made news in June when it sold for $5 million on the steps of the Shelby County Courthouse in a substitute trustee’s deed. In that transaction, the property transferred back to the lender, LNR Partners.

The building’s previous owner, Germantown LP, had defaulted on an Oct. 31, 1999, loan through HVB Realty Capital Inc. Germantown LP had assumed the original $6.5 million loan from the previous owner, Kirby Cremer LP.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Eric Smith

Economic Reports Point to Steady Recovery

Evidence that manufacturers are helping the economy slowly recover emerged Tuesday in a report that industrial production rose a better-than-expected 0.8 percent in November.

The gain showed consumers are spending more, causing manufacturers to produce more goods.

Eventually, the economic rebound could raise inflationary pressures. One reminder was a separate report Tuesday that wholesale inflation surprisingly surged last month. Still, many analysts said the economy remains so weak that they didn’t think the price increases would last.

Stronger activity at mines led last month’s increase in industrial production, rising 2.1 percent. The manufacturing sector – the biggest chunk of industrial output – rose 1.1 percent. Utilities fell 1.8 percent, according to the Fed report.

The portion of industrial capacity in use rose to 71.3 percent, from 70.6 percent in October. It shows that factories, mines and utilities are using more of their plants as the recovery takes root. But capacity use remains far below the 80 percent level that existed for part of the past decade.

Wholesale prices jumped 1.8 percent in November, the U.S. Labor Department reported. That’s more than double the 0.8 percent gain analysts had expected. Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, rose 0.5 percent, the sharpest increase in more than a year.

Over the past 12 months, wholesale prices have risen 2.4 percent, the biggest gain over an annual period since October 2008. Wholesale prices had been negative compared with year-earlier levels for 11 straight months.

But analysts said industrial spare capacity remains so large and demand still so soft that inflationary pressures are likely to remain tame. Some noted that oil prices have fallen about 10 percent since the start of the month. And the higher core rate of wholesale inflation was driven by price increases for light trucks, which may be a temporary factor reflecting a shift to new 2010 models.

– The Associated Press

Children’s H1N1 Vaccine Recalled Because of Weakness

About 800,000 pre-filled H1N1 flu syringes intended for young children have been recalled because they are not strong enough to protect against the virus, but most of the shots have already been used, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Tennessee Department of Health had scheduled a media teleconference to discuss the situation. Details of how many of the shots may have been administered in the state or in the Memphis area were not available at press time.

The vaccines were manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur. The company notified the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the potency in one batch was later found to be below a pre-specified limit.

There are no safety concerns with the recalled vaccines, the CDC said. At this time, the CDC is not recommending that children who received the recalled vaccines have the shots administered again.

– Tom Wilemon

Adams and Reese Among Top 100 Firms for Service

Adams and Reese LLP has been named among the Top 100 Law Firms for delivering superior client service, according to the BTI Client Service A-Team 2010 report.

Adams and Reese ranked No. 96 on the BTI list out of a field of more than 500 law firms serving Fortune 1,000 companies.

BTI is a market research and management consulting firm that provides strategic market research, management consulting and executive education to law firms and other professional service firms.

More than 800 Fortune 1,000 corporate counsel use the BTI report to evaluate law firms.

Adams and Reese previously was named among BTI’s list of Market Movers, Top 100 in Mergers and Acquisitions, Client Service A-Team and among the most Tech-Savvy Law Firms.

Adams and Reese LLP is a regional law firm with offices in Memphis.

– Taylor Shoptaw

Obama Promotes Energy Efficiency Program

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that home insulation “is sexy,” his newest appeal for Congress to pass incentives for homeowners who make their homes more energy efficient.

“Here’s what’s sexy about it. It saves money,” the president said at a Northern Virginia Home Depot store. He was joined at the outlet by members of Congress representing Virginia and labor and business leaders involved in services to lower homeowners’ use of natural resources.

Calling insulation the in-thing, Obama’s pitch was part of a broader administration push to lower the nation’s 10 percent unemployment rate. And it marked the fourth time in less than two weeks the president has presided over high-profile events that call attention to his efforts to curb joblessness.

Last week, Obama advanced a new spending plan that would provide tax breaks for energy-efficient retrofits in homes. The plan also calls for small-business tax cuts and new spending on highway and bridge construction. The administration hasn’t put a price tag on the plan, but it could total more than $150 billion.

The administration is hoping to tap into money paid back by banks or not needed from last October’s emergency $700 billion bailout program that pulled the country’s financial system back from the precipice of meltdown.

The White House hopes the appeal of the retrofitting program – which some administration officials have dubbed Cash for Caulkers – will be similar to the now-expired Cash for Clunkers program, which offered rebates for trading in used vehicles for more fuel-efficient ones.

Currently, about $8 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package goes toward energy-saving investments in homes. The White House has said investments like installing insulation, sealing leaks and modernizing heating and air conditioning equipment will pay for themselves many times over.

– The Associated Press