Riding the new media wave
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 11:20 pmOur colleagues at BusinessTN profile Nashville-based citizen media pioneers Parker and Colin Polidor, whose Cell Journalist has signed distribution deals with a number of notable media players.
permalink | Comment on this post
Saint Thomas parent overhauling debt
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 11:01 pmThe Bond Buyer reports on Ascension Health’s efforts to rid itself of $1.4 billion of variable-rate debt. Metro’s Health and Educational Facilities Board will be among the conduits of the upcoming deals.
permalink | Comment on this post
Fifth Third funding home-repair program
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Fifth Third Bank is the first bank to sign on with the Tennessee Housing and Development Agency’s Preserve Loan Program, which will fund home-repair loans. Fifth Third has committed $3.25 million at 4 percent interest.
permalink | Comment on this post
How the recession will tilt the U.S. regional balance
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 2:05 pmRichard Florida writes in The Atlantic about urban trends during this recession and the continued decline of the industrial heartland.
Sadly and unjustly, the places likely to suffer most from the crash — especially in the long run — are the ones least associated with high finance. While the crisis may have begun in New York, it will likely find its fullest bloom in the interior of the country.
Other topics touched on: How Charlotte may actually become an even more important banking center, how Sun Belt boomtowns can survive and this alternative approach to handling foreclosures:
The foreclosure crisis creates a real opportunity here. Instead of resisting foreclosures, the government should seek to facilitate them in ways that can minimize pain and disruption. Banks that take back homes, for instance, could be required to offer to rent each home to the previous homeowner, at market rates — which are typically lower than mortgage payments — for some number of years.
permalink | Comment on this post
Gaylord layoff tally in Orlando: 100
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 1:46 pmThe Gaylord Palms takes its lumps, which means the not-yet-one-year-old Gaylord National has shed about 40 positions.
permalink | Comment on this post
Feds raid Memphis financial service firm office
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 11:23 amFrom the Commercial Appeal:
FBI agents began removing boxes of documents from Stanford Financial Group Inc.’s Memphis office at the Crescent Center this morning.
The Houston-based financial services firm is under investigation by several federal agencies who say the company’s certificates of deposits are paying interest rates that are more than twice the national average.
Update: More big-picture info on what is now said to be an $8 billion fraud scheme from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.
And a link to the last public-company quarterly report filed by local golf equipment maker ForeFront Group, where a Stanford unit is listed as owning 81 percent of the company.
permalink | Comment on this post
Wilson County busting out of real estate slump
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 9:51 amVia NewsChannel5.com:
In 2008, Wilson County experienced a nearly 80 percent increase in foreclosures, but those who buy and sell homes in Wilson County said they were already seeing a turn around.
Realtors said location is the key to the turnaround, and Wilson County is just a short drive from the airport and downtown Nashville.
permalink | Comment on this post
$40M contract for Sitel
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 8:51 amA large payment processor has contracted with the Nashville-based call center operator to handle several customer service functions. The news comes three weeks after Sitel snagged a big job for an Internet travel firm.
permalink | Comment on this post
Debating pay caps for campus chiefs
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 8:34 amWith tuition rising and endowments crashing, the compensation of university administrators – including ex-Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee – is coming under a bit of scrutiny.
Higher education will be a big beneficiary of the economic stimulus package, which allocates money for student loans, university infrastructure improvements, and research grants. As universities accept tens of billions of dollars in federal assistance, presidents may find that six-figure performance bonuses do not go over well this year.
“How does a guy who’s making three-quarters of a million dollars sit in front of a legislative committee and plead about the distress of higher education?” asks Callan.
permalink | Comment on this post
Gaylord laying off 350
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 7:32 amAbout half of the job cuts are at HQ and local operations, while 30 folks are out of a job in Texas. That leaves about 140 cuts split among the company’s Orlando and D.C.-area hotels. The company’s beaten-up shares (Ticker: GET) are up about 2 percent in pre-market trading.
permalink | Comment on this post
LP cuts back in NC
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 7:23 amThe building products manufacturer (Ticker: LPX) is laying off about 90 people at its laminated lumber mill in Wilmington, N.C., leaving only a skeleton crew to run the distribution center and maintain the plant.
permalink | Comment on this post
Tractor Supply shareholder comings and goings
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 7:18 amWyoming-based money manager Friess Associates discloses that it built a 6.1 percent stake in Tractor Supply from scratch during the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, investment giant Capital Research trimmed its position in the Brentwood-based retailer (Ticker: TSCO) by 1 million shares and now owns about 7.2 percent.
permalink | Comment on this post
Nissan making electric music
Posted on February 16, 2009 at 11:31 pmThe auto maker says Middle Tennessee will be one of the first markets to get its 100-mile-per-charge electric cars late next year.
Mr. Perry said the Nissan, running on a lithium ion battery pack, won’t be a test model.
“We’re ready to go mass production and mass sales,” he said.
The Nissan official said that while the cost for a conventional vehicle of similar size may range from $28,000 to $30,000, the federal government is offering a tax credit of up to $7,500 on the electric. There also will be other steps to lower the buyer’s initial costs.
On a related note: The NYPD is preparing to put 20 Altima hybrids on the streets.
Such Cheek
Posted on February 16, 2009 at 10:55 pmTom Wood delivers your regular dose of Nashville business history:
An NPR guest perpetuates a myth debunked by NashvillePost.com co-founder Bill Carey: that Theodore Roosevelt called Nashville’s Maxwell House Coffee “good to the last drop,” coining one of the best-known slogans in advertising history. As noted in a comment to the NPR page, there is zero evidence that TR said anything of the kind on his visit to The Hermitage in 1907. Further evidence comes from Carey’s Tennessee History for Kids site and a 1908 Maxwell House promo that offers a very different aphorism.
The patriarch of the Cheek clan (as in Cheekwood, etc.), whose wealth came from the Maxwell House brand, is remembered here.
permalink | Comment on this post
From the Department of Numbers Sure to Fall Further
Posted on February 16, 2009 at 8:59 pmHendersonville-based Smith Travel Research and its survey partners say the total numbers of hotel rooms in development is down just 7 percent from a year ago. Think the other numbers will soon look like the upper-upscale segment’s off-a-cliff drop?
Recent Comments
Based on the data used to compile this list it is spot on. Since there is...
Many bachelors have cried a tear today.
Google news searching and blog-gleaning…the new...
I think the Mall just needs some fresh blood in there,...
Doesn’t matter to me or my family. The Blacks and...
How about “TennCare Cuts for Nashville...
The last time I was in that mall I felt like I was in a foreign...
When we move in it appears that the people with...
Huge slash! I need it!
Of course we do. We are very poor, unemployed, given up, weighted...
While I believe online property foreclosure...
we will need all those houses and more to house workers when...