Cordova Retail Center Sells for $1.2 Million

An affiliate of a Georgia-based real estate investment company has acquired a Cordova shopping center for $1.2 million.

CPT Berryhill LLC, which is affiliated with Marietta, Ga.-based Clifton Property Trust, bought the 17,500-square-foot Shops at Berryhill shopping center at 1890 Berryhill Road in Cordova from Berry Hill 169 LLC, an affiliate of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Ram Realty Services, according to a Dec. 30 special warranty deed. Ram Realty acquired the property out of default in 2010 for $400,000.

Clifton Property Trust is a commercial real estate investment firm that says its current focus is on acquiring Class B or Class C shopping centers located in the Southeast that are typically unanchored or primarily leased to local, noncredit businesses.

Built in 2002, the Shops of Berryhill is currently 76 percent leased to eight tenants, according to recent marketing materials. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2014 appraisal for the shopping center is $1.4 million.

In conjunction with the purchase, CPT Berryhill filed a $675,000 deed of trust through Morris Bank.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports
– Amos Maki

Wunderlich Adds to Fixed-Income Team

Memphis-based Wunderlich Securities Inc. has made several recent additions to its fixed

income capital markets division.

The additions include four professionals in Memphis, two in Little Rock, two in Los Angeles, one in San Francisco, one in New York and one in St. Charles, Ill.

According to division co-head S.J. Guzzo, the continued growth of the institutional fixed

income sales team through key hires will be a focus in 2015. The division currently employs 57 professionals in sales, trading, strategies and support services.

– Andy Meek

Cardinals Caravan Coming to Jan. 17 Grizzlies Game

With AutoZone Park undergoing renovations, the annual Cardinals Caravan stop in Memphis will take place at FedExForum Jan. 17 prior to the Grizzlies playing the Portland Trailblazers at 8 p.m.

Fans ages 15 and younger will be able to get autographs from 7 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. from current Cardinals organization players, including Kolten Wong, Carlos Martinez, Greg Garcia and Cody Stanley. Cardinals alumni expected to attend include Alan Benes and Cal Eldred. Broadcaster Mike Claiborne will serve as emcee.

A ticket to the Grizzlies game is required to attend the Cardinals Caravan. For more information, call 901-205-1234.

The Cardinals will return to Memphis to play an exhibition game with the Memphis Redbirds at AutoZone Park on April 3. For more information on the game and 2015 Redbirds tickets, visit www.memphisredbirds.com.

– Don Wade

Mid-South Community College, Arkansas State Trustees to Meet

Arkansas State University trustees and Mid-South Community College trustees are both in West Memphis Friday, Jan. 9, for special meetings to discuss making the community college becoming part of the ASU system.

The two special meetings are on the south campus of Mid-South Community College, with a press conference to follow.

Mid-South Community College has been among the community colleges in the area at the forefront of the effort to better train workers for jobs in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing plants.

– Bill Dries

Two Tennessee Towns Losing Nearly 2,000 Jobs

Two Tennessee towns will lose nearly 2,000 jobs over the next three years as Goodman Manufacturing moves the positions to a new plant being built in Texas.

Media report Goodman officials announced on Tuesday that the company plans to consolidate operations at an all-inclusive campus in Houston, which is expected to open in 2016. Daikin Industries Ltd. acquired Goodman, which manufactures heating, cooling and refrigerant products, in 2012.

Goodman spokesman Rex Anderson said the company is trying to meet the growth in demand. He said the company's current facilities in Texas and Tennessee are operating at capacity.

"Daikin felt it was time to pull some things together for the efficiency of manufacturing and for the value that we could add to our customers by having it in one facility," Anderson said. "We did due diligence on different locations in Texas and outside of Texas, but at the end of the day the most favorable solution for our customers and for the company was Texas."

The company has about 1,200 workers in Fayetteville, making it the largest employer in a town with about 7,000 residents. A smaller factory in Dayton employs about 700 workers.

Goodman said employees will have the option of making the move with the company or taking a severance package that includes two years of free college and assistance finding other work.

City officials say the advance notice should help soften the blow to the communities.

Even so, Fayetteville Mayor Jon Law, who took office about a month ago, said the city will feel the economic impact from lost wages, property taxes and utility use.

– The Associated Press

Coca-Cola Cutting Up to 1,800 Jobs

Coca-Cola says it will cut between 1,600 and 1,800 jobs in coming months to trim costs.

The world's biggest beverage maker says it began notifying workers in the U.S. and some international locations Thursday. It said job types are across all parts of its business and include about 500 cuts at its Atlanta headquarters.

The company, which makes Sprite, Powerade, Vitaminwater and other drinks, has about 130,600 employees around the world, according to FactSet.

In an emailed statement Thursday, Coca-Cola said it will "continuously look for ways to streamline our business," suggesting additional cuts could be announced later.

Coca-Cola Co. and rival PepsiCo Inc. have been looking for ways to cut costs as their soda businesses have flagged in North America. In October, Coca-Cola said it planned to slash costs by $3 billion a year through a variety of measures. It said the savings would be used to help fund the stepped-up marketing it believes is needed to drive up beverage sales. The announcement came as the company reported disappointing revenue for its third quarter, with global beverage volume up just 1 percent.

In addition to the proliferation of alternatives like flavored water and energy drinks, Coke and Pepsi are trying to overcome perceptions that soda makes people fat and health concerns about the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas. Soda consumption in the U.S. has been declining for years, with public health officials calling for special taxes and warning labels to discourage people from drinking it.

In its statement Thursday, Coca-Cola said it does not "take decisions about job impacts lightly."

– The Associated Press

US Unemployment Aid Applications Decline

Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that employers expect ongoing economic growth and the need to hold onto workers.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits fell 4,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 294,000.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, slipped 250 to 290,500. That average has plunged 16 percent in the past 12 months, as averages have stayed at historically low sub-300,000 levels since September.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. As fewer workers are being let go, employers are bringing on new employees to meet customer demand.

"Based on historical relationships, the prevailing four-week moving average for seasonally adjusted claims is consistent" with monthly job gains of 250,000, said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR, a forecasting firm.

In the monthly jobs report being released Friday, employers are expected to have added 243,000 jobs in December, according to FactSet. That would follow job gains of 321,000 in November and put total job growth in 2014 at just shy of 3 million, the best performance since 1999.

The unemployment rate has slid to 5.8 percent from 6.7 percent at the start of 2014.

– The Associated Press