Vendor Seeks $1.2 Million Permit For Target Distribution Center

A third-party vendor has applied for a $1.2 million building permit to build out Target’s planned Memphis online fulfillment center.

Innotrac, which will manage the Southeast Memphis facility for Target, applied for the permit through the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement. Memphis-based construction contractor Dan Walker Associates Inc. is listed as the contractor on the application, which says the work is for “new tenant space renovations.”

Target will turn the 900,000-square-foot building at 5461 Davidson Road into an online fulfillment center that will employ 462 people and service the entire Southeast U.S.

In December, Target was awarded a 15-year tax break for the project, which will support the Minneapolis-based retailer’s booming online business. The incentive would save Target around $12 million over 15 years while producing a local tax benefit of $27.2 million, according to the city-county Economic Development Growth Engine.

In January, Innotrac applied for a $42 million building permit for the project.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Amos Maki

Nonprofit Conference to Be Held April 30 at Temple Israel

Registration is open for the 10th Annual Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence Conference, to be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 30.

The event will be held at Temple Israel, 1375 E. Massey Road. Early Bird registration is $99 by April 1 for members. After April 1, members pay $120; non-members and walk-up registrants, $160; college students with valid ID, $50.

Lindsay Austin Louie, program officer of the Hewlett Foundation’s Effective Philanthropy Group, will serve as the keynote speaker.

Featured speakers include Lissette Rodriguez, managing director for Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and Bill Schambra, director of the Hudston Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal.

Phil Trenary, president and CEO of Greater Memphis Chamber, will be the luncheon speaker.

For more information, call 901-684-6605, email info@npexcellence.org or visit www.npexcellence.org.

– Don Wade

Tigers’ Bobby McCain Impresses at NFL Combine

Bobby McCain, who recently concluded his playing career at the University of Memphis, clocked a time of 4.51 in the 40-yard dash and had the best 20-yard shuttle performance with a 3.82 time as defensive backs went through a series of physical tests at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

In addition to having the best time in the 20-yard shuttle, McCain’s 11.22 time in the 60-yard shuttle tied for fourth-best. The Oxford, Ala., native’s broad jump of 130 inches (10-feet, 10-inches) tied for third while his “Three Cone Drill” time of 6.80 tied for fifth.

Also taking part in the NFL Combine over the past week were Memphis defensive end Martin Ifedi and offensive lineman Al Bond. The 2015 NFL Draft will take place in Chicago April 30 – May 2.

– Don Wade

Methodist University Hospital Sports Orange UT Initials

Starting this week, the University of Tennessee initials will appear on a Memphis hospital for the first time since 2004.

A bright orange “UT” will be added to new exterior signage at Methodist University Hospital, and the hospital will be referred to as Methodist UT Hospital in recognition of the partnership between the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare system. The new signage above the hospital’s main entrance and its new emergency department entrance were set to be unveiled on Wednesday.

“Placing the UT initials on the Downtown Methodist hospital building and reframing the name as Methodist UT Hospital reflects the convergence of the UTHSC and Methodist missions and visions,” UTHSC chancellor Dr. Steve Schwab told The Daily News. “More than 300 physicians are currently in training in Methodist facilities, and since our partnership began, more than 1,865 medical and surgical specialists have been trained in these locations. Methodist UT and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital (also) are core teaching hospitals of UTHSC along with five other core teaching partners across the state.”

Methodist UT Hospital is also home to UT Methodist Physicians, an academic physician practice group created in 2013 as an outgrowth of the partnership between the university and the hospital.

– Andy Meek

Drop in Robberies Prompts Falling Violent Crime Rate

A double-digit percentage drop in robberies in Memphis and Shelby County in the first month of 2015 led to a 2 percent drop in major violent crimes for January in Shelby County and a 1.7 percent drop in Shelby County compared to January of 2014.

The January statistics from the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission showed a 15.5 percent drop countywide in robberies compared to a year ago and a 13.8 percent drop in robberies from a year ago in Memphis.

In other major violent crime categories tracked as part of Operation Safe Community, aggravated assaults increased 7.8 percent from January of 2014 in Shelby County and 7.8 percent in Memphis by the same comparison.

Meanwhile, major property crimes in Shelby County were down 7.4 percent compared to a year ago and down 3.4 percent in Memphis from January of 2014.

Operation Safe Community is the coalition of law enforcement and criminal justice agencies that banded together in 2006 to pursue a specific crime fighting strategy that included moving police officers and other law enforcement resources to statistical hot spots for crime as patterns of crime changed.

As a result 2006 is considered the baseline year for the crime statistics countywide and in Memphis.

By that standard, Shelby County major violent crime is down 29.2 percent and Memphis major violent crime is down 24.6 percent from 2006.

Major property crime in Shelby County since 2006 is down by 38.3 percent and down in Memphis by 34.9 percent over the same period.

– Bill Dries