Daily News Wins 9 Awards In Tennessee AP Competition

The Daily News garnered nine awards in the 2016 Tennessee Associated Press News Excellence Awards presented by the Tennessee Associated Press Broadcasters and Media Editors. The awards were announced Saturday, April 8, in Nashville.

Photographer Andrew Breig and reporters Bill Dries, Andy Meek and Don Wade combined for five first-place awards, two second-place awards and two third-place awards. The paper also swept the Business News category in its division for the second consecutive year.

The Daily News’ awards include:

Business News

• First Place, Andy Meek: “Defining Transparency,” The Memphis News’ Aug. 19 cover story about transparency and communication between government entities and media organizations.

• Second Place, Bill Dries: A portfolio that included the July 29 cover story “Blue-Collar High School” and Aug. 26 cover story “Bursting the Bubble.”

• Third Place, Don Wade: “Under Pressure,” the Jan. 1 cover story about criticism and change at the Urban Child Institute.

Features

• First Place, Andy Meek: “The Grind,” the Jan. 15 cover story about a budding music ecosystem that’s helping Memphis musicians make it.

• Third Place, Bill Dries: “Massacre,” the May 6 cover story on the 1866 Memphis Massacre and the larger controversy about how local history is told.

Sports Coverage

• First Place, Don Wade: A portfolio of sports news and commentary.

Daily Deadline Reporting

• First Place, Bill Dries: “Black Lives Matter Protest Draws Thousands,” coverage of the July 10 protest that shut down the Hernando DeSoto bridge for several hours.

Photography: Individual Achievement/Body of Work

• First Place, Andrew Breig: A portfolio that included a range of portraits, architecture and other photos.

Editorials

• Second Place, The Daily News editorial board: A portfolio of editorials that ran in The Memphis News.

– Daily News staff

Judge Approves Sale Of Warren, Tulane Apartments

U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla has approved Millennia Housing Development Limited’s $3 million bid to buy the Warren and Tulane apartments from a federal court receiver.

But McCalla is still working through a claim by Class A Security LLC, which was under contract with Foresite Realty Management LLC, the court appointed receiver, to provide security at the two complexes. Class A is seeking $158,784 in expenses and fees.

McCalla ordered a receiver be appointed after Global Ministries Foundation, which owned the Warren and Tulane apartments, was sued by Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. The lawsuit centered on the Health, Educational and Housing Facility Board bonds that GMF used to finance its purchase of the complexes.

The bank acted after federal officials ended rent subsidies for tenants at the two complexes after each one failed a second federal inspection.

Both complexes have since been closed and all the tenants moved out.

The agreement is contingent on federal rent subsidies being restored for the Tulane Apartments.

McCalla gave other potential bidders until the end of March to make a counteroffer to Millennia’s offer, but no other bids were made.

– Bill Dries

Memphis Industrial Market Continues Strength in Q1

The Memphis area industrial real estate market closed the first quarter with positive net absorption, a strong start to 2017 that builds on a nearly four-year streak.

The market closed with 1.3 million square feet of positive net absorption and a total vacancy rate of 8 percent, according to commercial real estate company CBRE’s Q1 2017 Memphis Industrial MarketView report. It is the 15th consecutive quarter the market has closed with positive net absorption.

“Memphis has significant market activity and low available inventory, which means developers would benefit from capitalizing on the lack of supply in order to keep business in Memphis,” said Jacque Beeson, an associate with CBRE’s Industrial & Logistics team. “Luckily, developers are proactively constructing speculative buildings. Big-box companies want to be in the Mid-South because of favorable incentives, quality of Class A spaces, cost effective lease rates, and the accessibility to the river, rail, roads and air connectivity Memphis offers. And we want them here, too.”

The CBRE report shows that a little more than 1 million square feet of new space was delivered in the first quarter, while total vacancy increased 100 basis points to 8 percent.

The DeSoto County submarket continued to lead the way by significantly outpacing the Southeast submarket in terms of leasing activity. Even though the Southeast submarket experienced 230,000 square feet of positive net absorption in the first quarter, DeSoto County enjoyed six times that amount.

Three notable construction projects in the DeSoto submarket were delivered during the first quarter, Prologis’ 716,080-square-foot build-to-suit warehouse at 8500 Nail Road for an undisclosed tenant, and Hillwood’s two speculative buildings totaling roughly 360,000 square feet in Hacks Cross Logistics Center, which were leased to Kenco and Autoliv upon completion.

Of the market’s 3 million square feet of speculative developments, 60 percent were within the DeSoto submarket, the report stated.

“DeSoto County grows in popularity as large tenants continue to flock to the Memphis area and large bulk warehouse leases are signed,” research analyst Lee Wright said in the report. “This is a sign of continued demand for new space in the market and will continue to drive speculative development as tenant needs increase, particularly in the DeSoto County submarket, where 60 percent of the current speculative development is taking place.”

Meanwhile, developments under construction include Panattoni Development’s 554,040-square-foot speculative building at Gateway Global Logistics Center, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017. Developer Core 5 also began construction on two speculative warehouses in the DeSoto 55 Logistics Center in Horn Lake that will encompass 582,400 and 301,320 square feet.

– Patrick Lantrip