Walnut Hill Apartments Sells for $28 Million

The 324-unit Walnut Hill Apartments in Cordova has sold for $27.9 million to an entity affiliated with Philadelphia-based RAIT Financial Trust.

IRT Walnut Hill Apartments Owner LLC bought the complex at 8920 Walnut Grove Road in an Aug. 28 special warranty deed from 30 related California-based limited liability companies.

Built in 2001, the Class A property is situated on a 22.8-acre L-shaped parcel with frontage on Walnut Grove and North Forest Hill-Irene roads. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2014 appraisal is $22.3 million.

No financing was associated with the sale.

Walnut Hill last sold in 2006, fetching $25.8 million at the time.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

Whole Foods Pulls $6.6 Million Building Permit

Whole Foods is moving forward with construction of its new store in Germantown. The company pulled a $6.6 million building permit for the store at Poplar Avenue and Pete Mitchell Road in Germantown.

Whole Foods and local development firm Cypress Realty Holdings Co., in conjunction with Ford Jarratt Realty & Development Co., last year submitted plans to the city of Germantown to develop the 41,000-square-foot, freestanding Whole Foods store.

The grocery chain, founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, has been active in the Memphis area. In addition to the planned Germantown store, the specialty grocer opened a $3.1 million expansion of its East Memphis location.

– Amos Maki

Fire Museum Unveils ‘Honoring Our Heroes’ Exhibit

The Fire Museum of Memphis has unveiled a new $350,000 exhibit called “Honoring Our Heroes.”

It’s been stored for the past few months at the Urban Search and Rescue Warehouse at 4381 O.K. Robertson Road, and it’s scheduled for a grand opening Sept. 11.

The exhibit depicts the faces of a little more than 400 first responders killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, painted on four-inch tiles in the shape of an American flag. The planning and design firm Design 500 created the area in the museum surrounding the exhibit, which also honors the 67 members of Tennessee Task Force One deployed to the Pentagon in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

– Andy Meek

$10 Fee Lifted on Beale Street

If you want to go to Beale Street in the wee hours of Sunday morning, you’ll no longer have to pay a $10 fee.

Downtown Memphis Commission president Paul Morris said the temporary charge instituted in August following several dangerous incidents in the entertainment district has been lifted, but a tweaked version could reappear next year.

Morris said the fee, which was charged after midnight on Saturdays, worked as intended, thinning the large, sometimes unmanageable crowds that had built up in the district on Saturday nights in August.

“Both nights I was there, Beale Street wasn’t nearly as crowded as it had been but there were still a lot of people there,” said Morris.

The fee was used to pay for security patrols that the DMC, which is acting as temporary manager of the entertainment district, instituted on and around Beale Street during daylight and off-peak hours.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 10, a man was beaten unconscious on the street and laid there for some time while revelers took videos and pictures, which went viral once they hit social media networks. The weekend before that incident, Morris said, a “stampede” broke out on the street.

“Most people who come to Beale Street are having fun, but there are a few who come looking for trouble,” said Morris.

He said an alternate version of the fee, this time with a possible ticket or voucher patrons could use to get into a club or buy a drink, could return next year.

– Amos Maki

Comprehensive Pharmacy Services Names New Head of Development

Memphis-based Comprehensive Pharmacy Services, the nation's largest pharmacy services provider, has announced the appointment of Gentry Hughes as executive vice president, development.

Hughes will be responsible for leading the company's national and regional accounts and channel relationships. Hughes is a health care industry veteran, and is joining CPS after a 15-year career at GE Healthcare, where he spent the last five years as head of the company's U.S. Clinical System Sales and Marketing Division. He's also held leadership positions at Symphony Health Services, Harlan Laboratories and Dynavox. He attended the University of Kentucky and completed his graduate studies at Marquette University.

– Don Wade

Memphis Women's Soccer Player Up for CLASS Award

Memphis senior midfielder Kylie Davis was named one of 30 women's soccer student-athletes who were selected as a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award.

Davis, a Preseason All-American Athletic Conference selection, is the third women's soccer student-athlete in program history who has been named a candidate for the award. In 2011, defender Lizzy Simonin became the first Memphis Lady Tiger to win the award.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 players will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one male and one female who best exemplify excellence in community, classroom, character and competition.

– Don Wade

US Services Firms Expand at Record-High Pace

U.S. services firms expanded in August at the fastest pace on record.

The Institute for Supply Management said Thursday that its services index rose to 59.6 last month from 58.7 in July. The August figure is the highest recorded since the measure was introduced in January 2008. Fifteen industries reported growth last month. Only mining and arts, entertainment and recreation contracted in August.

Hiring grew at services firms for a sixth straight month. Their export orders grew for a fifth straight month but at a slower pace than in July.

Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said the report suggests that economic growth remains healthy in the current July-September quarter after registering a robust 4.2 percent annual pace from April through June.

– The Associated Press