Company Files Loan on Germantown Location

The owner of the 26,640-square-foot Germantown Fresh Market and attached strip retail center at 9375 Poplar Ave has filed a $4.2 million loan on the property.

TFM Germantown LLC filed the deed of trust, assignment of leases and rents and security agreement June 3 through Starwood Mortgage Capital. Michael E. Calandra signed the deed as manager of the borrower.

TFM bought the property April 10 in six special warranty deeds from the previous tenants in common for a combined $4.7 million.

Built in 2001, the Class A strip shopping center sits on 3.4 acres along the south side of Poplar Avenue just west of where the street meets Poplar Pike. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2013 appraisal was $4.1 million.

The Germantown Fresh Market is one of two Memphis-area stores the company operates, with the other being at 835 S. White Station Road in Eastgate Shopping Center. The Fresh Market is converting the former Ike’s at Union Avenue and South Cooper Street in Midtown into its third area store.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

Methodist Olive Branch Wins LEED Certification

Methodist Olive Branch Hospital has been awarded a prestigious designation for its sustainable design.

Methodist Olive Branch was designated with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Healthcare Gold Certification status by from the U.S. Green Building Council, a private nonprofit that encourages more sustainable design.

The hospital is one of six facilities in the world to hold LEED for Healthcare certification, and one of three in the U.S. The LEED for Healthcare certification began in 2012 and was developed to encourage increased performance criteria specific to hospitals.

The $100 million, 210,000-square-foot Methodist Olive Branch Hospital, which includes features such as photoelectric glass and a geothermal heat pump system, opened in August 2013.

Methodist partnered with engineering and LEED consultants at Smith Seckman Reid Inc., architects at Gresham, Smith and Partners, and Turner Construction Co. to achieve LEED certification for the Olive Branch hospital.

– Amos Maki

First Suburban Candidates File Petitions

Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald has made it official, filing his qualifying petition to run for another four-year term.

Also filing in the past week to run in the Nov. 4 suburban elections are Bartlett aldermen David Parsons and Bubba Pleasant. Pleasant has opposition in his bid for re-election to Position 1 from Mick Wright, who has pulled a petition.

Collierville alderman Tom Allen has potential opposition from Greg Cotton.

And Germantown Municipal Schools board chairman Lisa Parker has pulled a petition for re-election to the school board.

The filing deadline for the suburban candidates is Aug. 21 at noon.

– Bill Dries

Patrick Accounting Head Wins Industry Award

Patrick Accounting & Tax Services PLLC managing member Matthew Patrick was honored at the recent 2014 spring marketing conference of the Professional Association of Small Business Accountants.

Winners were chosen in three award categories, with Patrick chosen as the medium practice recipient of the association’s Accountant of the Year award for his firm.

Patrick Accounting and Tax Services is a certified public accounting firm in Germantown and Nashville that offers small-business owners a full range of professional services, including back office support system, accounting, payroll, strategic planning, and tax preparation and planning.

– Andy Meek

Mississippi Economic Growth Slows in 2013

New figures show that Mississippi’s economy grew in 2013 but slowed markedly from the year before.

Gross domestic product numbers released Wednesday by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis try to measure all of the economic output of each state.

Mississippi’s 2013 growth rate of by 1.6 percent was below the national average of 1.8 percent, and ranked 29th among the 50 states. For 2012, figures were revised upward to show that Mississippi’s economy expanded by 3.5 percent, the best in the Southeast and one of the best in the nation.

“It’s a little bit lower than we were thinking but not significantly so,” said state economist Darrin Webb said of the 2013 growth rate. “We kind of figured that 2013 was going to be a slowdown year.”

Webb did say he was taken off guard by the upward change in the 2012 growth rate. It was one of only four times in the last 15 years that Mississippi’s economy has grown faster than the nation. Other years included 2003, 2007 and 2008.

Mississippi retained the lowest per-capita gross domestic product of any state, at $32,421 per person. That number is a measure of the general wealth of the economy, but is not a measure of actual wages or incomes.

Though the state’s $105 billion economy slowed, Mississippi matched the Southeast region’s growth. It outperformed Louisiana’s 1.3 percent growth, Alabama’s 0.8 percent growth and Tennessee’s 0.8 percent growth. Arkansas surpassed Mississippi, though, growing 2.4 percent.

– The Associated Press

Lew: Economy Still Facing Challenges

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Wednesday that the economy should grow at much stronger rates the rest of this year as the country overcomes the impact of a harsh winter. But Lew said millions of Americans continue to struggle as unemployment remains too high and economic growth is too slow.

“Evidence continues to mount that our economy is gaining traction,” Lew said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. “Nevertheless, we cannot escape the fact that millions of Americans continue to struggle and their pain reminds us that our work is not finished. ... For too many families this hardly feels like a recovery.”

In his remarks, which were distributed in Washington, Lew called for actions by the government and the private sector to boost hiring of the long-term unemployed and increase investment in productivity-enhancing equipment and critical infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and ports.

Lew said the country also needed a stronger commitment to education in the areas of science, math and engineering to make sure students have the skills they need to compete in the new economy.

Lew said that from 1948 to 2007, the economy grew at average annual rates of 3.4 percent per year. But he said the Congressional Budget Office is now projecting that after the economy returns to full employment, economic growth will only average about 2.1 percent per year – just two-thirds of the average right after World War II.

– The Associated Press

Insurers Propose Changes to Obama Health Law

Insurers want to change President Barack Obama’s health care law to provide financial assistance for people buying bare-bones coverage. That would entice the healthy and the young, the industry says, holding down premiums.

So-called catastrophic plans are currently not eligible for the law’s subsidies, and only 2 percent of the 8 million consumers who signed up this year picked one. Subsidies bring down the cost of monthly premiums.

The proposed change is part of a package of recommendations that America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main industry trade group released Wednesday. Others address how to smooth transitions for consumers who switch insurance companies, as well as making it easier for patients to find out which hospitals and doctors are in particular plans and whether their medications are covered.

Adults ages 18 to 34, the health care law’s most coveted demographic, are under-represented among those enrolled for subsidized private insurance this year. Insurers are currently filing their proposed premiums for 2015, and increases of 10 percent or more are anticipated. Nonetheless, the new state insurance exchanges are poised to grow, with more carriers entering the market to compete for business.

– The Associated Press