Alex MillerEMJ Construction has named Alex Miller as senior vice president of preconstruction for its Chattanooga-based team.
In this role, Miller will help plan, organize, and direct the activities of the preconstruction department for EMJ, the largest construction company in Chattanooga. Miller earned an engineering degree from the University of Tennessee and joined EMJ in 2008 as a project engineer.
“At a construction firm, one of the key roles is leader of the preconstruction department because that department is the key to delivering a great client experience,” said Chas Torrence, executive vice president of EMJ.
While at EMJ, he’s served on several high-profile projects in Tennessee including the Wacker Polysilicon plant in Charleston, Tennessee, the Market City Center in downtown and the renovation of Ruby Falls on Lookout Mountain.
“All I know is EMJ and that’s all I want to know,” said Miller.
Since 1968, EMJ and its family of companies have delivered more than $12.6 billion in construction projects across the United States.
Apartment rates up, but below U.S. median
Apartment rates in Chattanooga rose more than in most major cities over the past year, but rental rates in Chattanooga remained more than 35 percent below the U.S. average, according to a new Zumper National Rent Report.
Zumper said the median rent for a typical one-bedroom apartment in Chattanooga rose 2.6 percent over the past 12 months to $780. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Chattanooga was up 11.3 percent to $890.
By comparison, the national one-bedroom median rent fell 2.5 percent in the past year to $1,212, while the median rent for two-bedroom apartments across the United States increased by 3.7 percent in the past year to $1,442, Zumper said.
San Francisco remained the most expensive city for apartments with the median rent for a one-bedroom unit at $3,580 a month and the typical two-bedroom unit renting for $4,640.
Drug plan gives patient discounts
The Trump administration says it is moving ahead with a plan to channel behind-the-scenes prescription drug discounts directly to consumers.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday his proposed regulation would encourage drugmakers, middlemen and insurers to provide any such discounts to consumers when they purchase their prescriptions.
Drugmakers don’t provide discounts for all their medications, so the impact for consumers remains to be seen.
The proposal would work by doing away with an exemption from federal anti-kickback rules that now allows drugmakers, insurers and middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate rebates among themselves.
It would be replaced with a new exemption for discounts offered directly to consumers.
Business filings up 10.3% in Tennessee
New business filings increased more than 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the previous year, according to a new report released Thursday by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett.
The Tennessee Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report showed that 9,837 new entity filings were recorded in the final quarter of 2018 and a total of 42,914 new entity filings were processed by the Secretary of State’s Division of Business Services the entire calendar year.
“Business is booming in Tennessee, and the momentum of the past year is expected to continue as we head into 2019,” Hargett said. “
Tennessee has recorded 29 consecutive quarters of positive year-over-year growth in the number of new business filings.
Hamilton County business filing in the fourth quarter totaled 642 , up 4.2 percent from a year earlier.
Mortgage rates edge up; 30-year at 4.46 percent
U.S. long-term mortgage rates edged up after declining in recent weeks.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.46 percent, from 4.45 percent last week. Despite the recent declines, home borrowing rates are above last year’s levels. The key 30-year rate averaged 4.22 percent a year ago.
The average rate this week for 15-year, fixed-rate loans ticked up to 3.89 percent from 3.88 percent.
The recent decline in mortgage rates has been a spur to prospective homebuyers. Sales of new U.S. homes soared 16.9 percent November.
Last year, home sales stumbled as higher borrowing costs eroded affordability.
Wages and benefits up 0.7 % in quarter
U.S. workers saw their annual wages and benefits rise by 0.7 percent in the final three months of last year, a moderate gain that was down only slightly from the third quarter.
The Labor Department says that the seasonally adjusted October-December gain was down from a 0.8 percent rise in the third quarter.
Over the past 12 months, wages and benefits are up 2.9 percent, an improvement from a 12-month gain of 2.8 percent in the 12 months ending in September.
Wages and salaries, which make up 70 percent of employment costs, were up 3.1 percent for the 12 months ending in December while benefits such as health insurance and pension contributions rose by 2.8 percent.
Analysts said the moderate gains were not threatening to trigger unwanted inflation pressures.