{ Full Article Here } A Chinese auto parts company aiming to supply interiors for Volkswagen’s new sport utility vehicle has plans to open a plant in the Chattanooga area and create 330 jobs. Yanfeng USA officials are eyeing the area for a building in which it would set up a multimillion-dollar operation, said Kerri Szalony, director of human resources …

{ Full Article Here } WASHINGTON, DC—Not only has an improving economy boosted the apartment sector as household formation has rebounded to pre-recession levels. It turns out that the sector has helped improve the economy. Research commissioned by the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association shows that the apartment industry and its 36 million residents contributed $1.3 …

{ Full Article Here } Parts of downtown will get a little more colorful as part of an effort to bring a unique identity several blocks around Railroad Park. REV Birmingham, Children’s of Alabama, UAB, Alabama Power and the city of Birmingham are partnering on a project to make Parkside a neighborhood as defined as Avondale or Southside. “It’s important …

{Full Article Here} Montgomery could soon have a secondHyundai plant, according to South Korea’sYonhap News Agency. Hyundai is reportedly trying to fill a need for more crossover vehicles in the North American market by building new plant that could produce as many as 300,000 sport utility vehicles by as early as 2017. The company has not made plans public or …

{ Full Article Here } The Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolitan area has been named a top-10 metro area by Site Selection magazine. Atlanta-based Conway Data, publisher of Site Selection, ranked Baldwin County’s tri-city metro among other areas with a population of less than 200,000 in the magazine’sMarch 2015 online edition. With nine companies either expanding or locating to one of the three …

Construction is beginning on one of downtown Birmingham’s most highly anticipated projects. Developer Bayer Properties is starting workthis week on the $66 million redevelopment of the historic Pizitz Building. The 251,210-square-foot building will be transformed into six floors of residential space, featuring 143 multifamily units, office space on the Mezzanine level and apublic urban market on the ground floor.The building’s …

Young urbanites in Chattanooga and elsewhere are willing to sacrifice space CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—A push to live in smaller spaces is reaching the nation’s smaller cities. When Kelly Lunt moved here from the San Francisco area in November, she rented a 550-square-foot one-bedroom apartment in the heart of this city’s downtown. She pays $900 a month with all utilities and Wi-Fi …

{ Read More } National Association of Home Builders tax and policy expert Rob Dietz looks at recent data from the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development Survey of Market Absorption of Apartments (SOMA), whose topline finding is that completions of privately financed, unsubsidized, unfurnished rental apartments in buildings with five or more units totaled 171,500 residences for …

{ full article here } Hoping to capture students from both the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Chattanooga State Community College, a Virginia-based developer plans to build a 600-bed apartment complex on vacant property at 1428 Riverside Drive, near the future extension of Central Avenue. The site is immediately across from the Riverside Business Center, where CSL Plasma is …

{ full article here } Initial efforts have succeeded in slowing the growth of large-scale, student-based apartment complexes in Tuscaloosa, according to a report Thursday at the mayor’s Student Rental Housing Task Force meeting. The report also said it could be time to reassess the efforts of the task force, formed by Mayor Walt Maddox’s executive order in June 2013. …