Building Permit Filed For Grand Island Apartments

The group bringing the 204-unit Grand Island apartments to Mud Island has filed a $12.1 million building permit with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement. Grand Island Partners, an affiliate of Grant & Co., filed the permit with plans to break ground in the spring, said company president Keith Grant.

The property will be owned and managed by Grand Island LLC under the holding company L2 Properties. The multifamily project was granted payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) status at an April meeting of the Center City Revenue Finance Corp., creating $2.47 million in tax savings and clearing a path for the gated, Class A property.

Grand Island will sit on the south end of Mud Island next to Rivertown on the Island condominiums, another Grant & Co. project. The formal address of the apartment complex, at least for permit purposes, is 300 Grand Island Drive.

Grant said the project originally was slated to begin this fall, but financing through the Federal Housing Administration’s Housing and Urban Development office has slowed the process because of a backlog of other projects.

Construction for the entire complex is expected to last 22 months, Grant said, although some units will be ready by the end of 2010.

Grand Island’s apartment units will have 700 to 1,350 square feet and will cost between $830 to $1,480 a month. The complex will have 108 one-bedroom, 84 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom units. Half of the units will have views of the Mississippi River. The property also will have a clubhouse with a party/meeting room, movie theater, fitness center and swimming pool.

For more about Grand Island, see the April 16 issue of The Daily News at www.memphisdailynews.com.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Eric Smith

Local Habitat For Humanity Receives Homebuilding Grant

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati has awarded 12 grants for more than $2.4 million to Habitat for Humanity organizations throughout Tennessee to help build 116 homes.

Each year the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati sets aside 10 percent of net earnings for the Affordable Housing Program, which helps create affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati awards grants through its member banks who partner with a nonprofit organization.

This year, Bank of Bartlett and Habitat for Humanity Greater Memphis will receive $137,747 to build eight homes.

– Taylor Shoptaw

Methodist Ultrasound Dept. Receives Accreditation

The Methodist University Hospital Ultrasound Department has received accreditation from the American College of Radiology in general, gynecological and vascular ultrasound.

To earn the accreditation, Methodist University Hospital had to volunteer for a review process that included exams of personnel and equipment.

The American College of Radiology is a national organization that serves more than 32,000 diagnostic and interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear physicians and medical physicists.

– Taylor Shoptaw

State Arts Community Launches Facebook Page

The Tennessee Arts Commission decided at a recent conference to launch a Facebook page designed to help the state’s arts industries share their creative ideas.

The page, Arts Agency Idea Exchange, has more than 100 members and continues to grow.

Rich Boyd, executive director of the commission, said Facebook is an easy way to exchange ideas, brainstorm and ask questions.

There has been some interest in the project outside the state, with individuals from the West Coast and Arizona joining.

The page was set up by Kennedy, Coulter, Rushing & Watson, a Chattanooga-based strategic planning firm.

– The Associated Press

Local Artists Set Up Seasonal Cooperative

Several local artists are kicking off a Winter Arts cooperative this week at 5475 Poplar Ave., just east of Bud Davis Cadillac.

The cooperative opens with a “Meet the Artists” reception Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The seasonal shops will be open Saturday through Christmas Eve.

Artists include Lisa Tribo, Terry Woodard, Jen Winfrey, Tatia Johnson, Lisa Hudson, Lester Jones, Dorothy Northern, Lisa Mergen, Cheryl Hazelton, Sharon and Jim Barrett, Katie Dann, Bryan Blankenship, Robert McCarroll, Mary Lou Egger, Rick Cannon, Ansley Larsson, Marian McKinney, Lauren Coulson, Betsy Bird, Angela Goza, Laura Artates, Janette Kennedy, Daphne Hewett, Virginia Knuckolls, Joel Alexander, Rick Thordarson, Paula Wewers, Jan Troutt, Agnes Stark, Barry Joyce and Lisa Allen.

For more details, visit www.winterartsmemphis.com.

– Tom Wilemon

Summit Asset President Rhea Wins WKNO Service Award

WKNO Public Broadcasting has awarded its Julian Bondurant Distinguished Service Award to Stephen Rhea, the co-president and financial adviser at Summit Asset Management LLC in Memphis.

Rhea also has been the WKNO Capital Campaign Chair who led the broadcaster’s digital transition campaign that brought in almost $17 million. The award is named in honor of WKNO’s founder, who raised the money that allowed Channel 10 to start broadcasting on June 25, 1956.

– Andy Meek

Late Credit Card Payments Drop Unexpectedly in Q3

For the first time in a decade, more people paid their credit card bills on time in the third quarter this year compared to the second quarter.

The delinquency rate on bank-issued cards such as those bearing MasterCard and Visa logos fell to 1.1 percent for the June-to-September period, from a rate of 1.17 percent in the prior three months, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion.

The 6 percent drop is significant not just for its size but also for its timing, since delinquency rates usually rise in the third quarter from the prior period, said Ezra Becker of TransUnion’s financial services group. Taken together with the more than 11 percent decline seen between the first and second quarters, the results indicate that consumers are getting better at handling their debt.

The 2009 third-quarter delinquency rate was basically flat with the 2008 third quarter, when 1.09 percent of card payments were 90 days or more past due. TransUnion measures credit card delinquencies at 90 days because three months is considered an indicator the cardholder will default, since it is difficult to make up that many missed payments.

One reason for consumers to pay more attention to their credit cards was worry over potential job losses, as the unemployment rate climbed toward double digits.

Also in play are strict new credit card regulations set to take effect in February. Banks have cut back on the number of cards they have issued and the amount of credit available ahead of that law. Becker said the law will likely lead to the creation of new credit products, and consumers will choose cards based not only on interest rates, but other features.

“The landscape of card lending is going to change fundamentally,” Becker said.

TransUnion’s statistics are culled from approximately 27 million anonymous, randomly sampled individual credit files.

– The Associated Press