Bruster’s Ice Cream to Open Highland Strip Location

The Highland Strip will soon be home to a tasty new tenant.

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream plans to move into the 1,300-square-foot space at 571 Highland St., with construction set to begin soon and an expected opening date late this year, according to Loeb Properties Inc.

The deal was brokered by Aaron Petree for Loeb Properties and Harold Blockman at Keller Williams for Bruster’s.

Founded in 1989, Bruster’s offers at least 24 ice cream flavors, along with sorbets, frozen yogurts, cakes and pies, among other items. Currently there are nearly 200 independently operated Bruster’s locations in 20 U.S. states, South Korea and Guyana.

Bruster’s announced last September that Garosa Partners LLC had signed a franchise agreement for three locations in the Memphis area, along with locations in Jackson, Tennessee, and Tupelo and Oxford, Mississippi.

– Daily News staff

East Memphis Office Building Sells for $7 Million

A 79,000-square-foot office building in East Memphis has switched hands in a multimillion-dollar deal.

Gregory Realty GP purchased the Class B building at 855 Ridge Lake Blvd. for $7 million from Israel-based investors Faropoint Ventures, doing business as Ridge Lake TN Realty Holdings LLC.

The facility, which was 100 percent occupied at the time of the purchase, is situated on 3.3 acres on the west side of Ridge Lake Boulevard north of Poplar Avenue. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2017 appraisal is $7.8 million.

Brian Califf and Elliot Embry with NAI Saig Co. represented the seller in the transaction. Califf said Faropoint plans to re-deploy the capital back into the Memphis market this year through new acquisitions.

Financing for the deal was provided by Citizens National Bank.

– Patrick Lantrip

Memphis Attorney Censured By State Supreme Court

Memphis attorney Samuel Jones has been publicly censured by the Tennessee Supreme Court following an allegation to the Board of Professional Responsibility earlier this year that he accepted fees from two clients in U.S. Bankruptcy Court without court approval and failed to deposit the fees into his trust account for the matter. He also was accused of missing filing deadlines.

A hearing panel found he violated the state’s rules of professional conduct involving competence, diligence, safekeeping of property, fairness to opposing counsel and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

The Supreme Court entered the order against Jones on June 30. The censure is a rebuke and a warning. It does not affect Jones’ ability to practice law in any way.

– Bill Dries

Memphis Nonprofits to Get $1.7M in AmeriCorps Funds

Volunteer Tennessee, the governor-appointed commission on volunteerism and service, has been awarded more than $4 million in AmeriCorps funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service, with $1.7 million of that to go to Memphis nonprofits.

The $4 million awarded statewide will support 919 AmeriCorps members across the state to serve with 17 organizations, according to Volunteer Tennessee.

AmeriCorps members will tackle critical challenges in the state, including tutoring and mentoring children, supporting veterans and military families, providing health services, restoring the environment, responding to disasters, increasing economic opportunities, and recruiting and managing volunteers.

The Memphis organizations receiving grants are:

• Artesian Community School: $60,221 in planning grant funding

• Aspire University: $6,400; total members: 8

• Bridge Builders Expansion – BRIDGES USA Inc.: $148,092 ; total members: 35

• City Year Memphis: $605,000; total members: 50

• Generations – Porter-Leath: $322,320; total members: 24

• Memphis Teacher Residency: $393,900; total members: 30

• Teach for America, Memphis: $125,000; total members: 250

In addition, a no-cost grant was awarded to the Relay Graduate School of Education for the Relay New Teacher Pathway in Nashville and Memphis to support 80 AmeriCorps members. At the end of the first program year, the AmeriCorps members will be prepared and certified to serve as full-time teachers of record.

The Tennessee grants are among $532 million awarded nationwide. In addition, the Corporation for National and Community Service will make available more than $4.4 million in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards for the AmeriCorps members funded by these grants. After completing a full term of service, AmeriCorps members receive an award of $5,815 they can use to pay for college or to pay off student loans.

– Daily News staff

U of M Awarded $3.2M For Disaster Resilience

A multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers led by the University of Memphis has been awarded a $3.2 million grant from the 2015 HUD National Disaster Resilience Competition to map and assess damage from future floods and earthquakes in Lake, Dyer, Lauderdale and Madison counties in West Tennessee. The effort will also include focused public education and community outreach activities.

The U of M grant is part of the $44 million Rural by Nature award to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to address areas of the state that were heavily impacted by the historic 2011 floods and are also at risk from damage by earthquakes in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Most Rural by Nature funds will address major infrastructure upgrades in these communities, including the rehabilitation of aging wastewater treatment plants.

The U of M work will provide a toolkit for these communities to plan and prioritize infrastructure upgrades, prepare and respond to future disasters, and submit data-driven funding requests for disaster mitigation.

The team includes Vanderbilt University, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium.

“This important work will assist the state in increasing disaster resilience in some of West Tennessee’s most vulnerable rural communities through applied research and education,” said University of Memphis president M. David Rudd in a written statement.

– Daily News staff

UTHSC Faculty Members Win $1.9M for Database Project

Two University of Tennessee Health Science Center faculty members have won a grant of about $1.9 million for the funding of a database and open-source software project for web-based genetics research.

The project, called GeneNetwork, provides researchers with data access and a sophisticated set of online tools used to study genetic differences and evaluate disease risk in model organisms and human cohorts.

GeneNetwork was launched in 2001 as part of a National Institutes of Health Human Brain Project grant and was one of the first websites designed for gene mapping.

This new NIH grant supports major upgrades for the software infrastructure for gene mapping and analysis.

The system is open source, and both the code and data is available to users. The system enables direct access to experimental data and statistical analysis tools to a wide range of users – from students and teachers to research scientists.

– Andy Meek