Coke breaks ground on new $62 million center in Chattanooga

Coke brass, elected officials and Shepard residents broke ground this morning on Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Company’s new distribution center off W. Shepard Road at the old Olan Mills property. The center will create 43 new jobs and preserve 270 which would have followed the center had it gone to another city. The 305,000-square-foot facility is slated to cost $62 million. …

Hayward announces 200 new jobs at Port of Pensacola

A new manufacturing facility at the Port of Pensacola is expected to bring as many as 200 new jobs and $52 million in capital investment to the city, Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward announced Thursday. The project, a partnership between existing port tenant Offshore Inland and Houston-based Deepflex, will make use of an existing warehouse and 3.5 acres of undeveloped land. …

Former Merita Bakery next to Birmingham Railroad Park to become restaurant, office space

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Developers are aiming to transform the former Merita Bakery next to Birmingham Railroad Park into restaurants and office space. LIV Development and Corporate Realty are partnering on the $5 million project to renovate the long-time bakery building at First Avenue South and 14th Street into an adaptive re-use project. Plans call for around 13,200 square feet to …

VW to build new SUV in Tennessee, add 2,000 jobs

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Volkswagen plans to build a new seven-passenger SUV at its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, adding about 2,000 factory jobs as it tries to reverse U.S. sales that have fallen for the past two years. The German automaker announced Monday that it will invest $600 million to expand the factory and set up a new research center …

Buzz over VW’s SUV reaches fever pitch

The launch of a United Auto Workers local in Chattanooga is turbocharging reports that a production decision on Volkswagen’s new sport utility vehicle will come next week. VW isn’t commenting, but workers and media outlets are fueling buzz that the automaker will announce as early as Monday that the vehicle will be assembled at its Chattanooga plant. The UAW’s effort to organize VW’s …

New multi-family units proposed near Erlanger, UTC

A new multifamily residential complex with 387 units could soon rise on the site of a shuttered manufacturing plant on Riverside Drive. Developer Chris Senn will ask the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission on Tuesday for approval to rezone the nearly 18-acre swath of land at 950 Riverside Drive — the site of the old Cumberland Corp. and Cannon Equipment …

Apartment Rents Climb Faster As Demand Tops Supply

Apartment rents in the U.S. grew at a quicker pace in the second quarter as tenant demand rose faster than the growing supply of multifamily properties. Rents after any discounts such as a free month climbed 3.4% to an average $1,099 a month from $1,064 a year earlier, property-research firm Reis (NASDAQ:REIS) said in its quarterly report. Effective rents had …

Chattanooga ranks seventh in nation for fastest-growing rents, ahead of even NYC

At least once a month during the three years James Davis lived in his East Brainerd apartment complex, a moving truck would roll in in the middle of the night and a family would quietly pack up and head out under cover of darkness. “They realized they couldn’t afford things anymore,” Davis said. Davis watched them go, year after year, …

‘New venue for new era’: Alabama Power Railroad Park area steam plant to bring Birmingham a new kind of energy

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — For more than 100 years the Powell Avenue steam plant served a major source of energy for Birmingham. Now leaders at Alabama Power Company want to use the historic building to generate new civic and cultural energy. Alabama Power President Mark Crosswhite this afternoon announced the company’s plan to redevelop the former industrial plan into an entertainment …

Apartment Rents Rise as Incomes Stagnate

Apartment landlords continued to push through hefty rent hikes in the second quarter, squeezing U.S. households that already are struggling financially after four years of steady increases. The average monthly rent for an apartment rose to $1,099 in the second quarter, up 0.8% from the first quarter, according to data to be released Wednesday by real-estate research firm Reis Inc. …