Upscale market planned for Clemons Building
A multipurpose, upscale market is to go into the ground floor at the historic Clemons Building, when it opens a new downtown Chattanooga housing.
Also, The Clemons at 730 Chestnut St. will host an open house Saturday where the public will get a firsthand look at the new model lofts. The open house will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Street Corner Market at the Clemons will provide an option for supermarket shopping, according to the owners.
The store, scheduled to open in March, is about 2,200 square feet and will occupy a large portion of the ground level. It will feature fresh produce, Boar’s Head meats and cheeses, local coffees, and a rotating selection of craft beers and artisan snacks. Residents at The Clemons will also be able to purchase essentials at a self service station, which will be accessible 24 hours a day.
In addition, Epic Optical optometry offices and eyeglasses boutique will also occupy space on the ground floor. About 2,000 square feet retail space is still available to be leased.
The upper floors of the Clemons Building are currently being transformed into 55 uniquely designed luxury lofts, which are scheduled to open in January 2016.
Servers train at Tupelo Honey Cafe at Warehouse Row.Tupelo Honey reopens today
Tupelo Honey Cafe is slated to reopen at its Warehouse Row location in downtown Chattanooga today after closing last month for repairs.
The restaurant is reopening with limited hours this weekend while also introducing several new scratch-made holiday menu additions. This weekend’s re-opening schedule is:
* Today: Dinner only from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
* Sunday: Brunch only from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
* Monday and beyond: Full hours of operation for brunch, lunch and dinner.
To mark the re-opening, the restaurant will offer a chance for guests to win “Dinner for Two for a Year.” To register to win and to check out the location’s new holiday menu items, visit the Tupelo Honey Cafe Chattanooga website.
VW brand sales fall globally
Volkswagen says worldwide car sales by its core VW brand were 2.4 percent lower in November than a year earlier. For the year’s first 11 months, sales dropped 4.5 percent.
The German automaker has been hit by fallout from the emissions-cheating scandal that erupted in mid-September.
It said Friday that Volkswagen Passenger Cars delivered 496,100 vehicles last month, down from 508,400 in November 2014. January-November deliveries dropped to some 5.34 million from 5.59 million.
The Volkswagen brand delivered 6.12 million cars in total last year.
Volkswagen sales executive Juergen Stackmann noted the drop through November and said: “In view of the situation of the brand, which is currently challenging, I do not expect that we will be able to compensate for this fall in the remaining days of the year.”
The Ikea logo is shown on the side of the warehouse-sized store during a grand opening in this file photo.IKEA breaks ground on first Tennessee store
Furniture store IKEA has broken ground on what will be its first Tennessee location in Memphis.
IKEA Memphis will take up 35 acres and 271,000 square feet and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016. The store will sell furniture and accessories and will feature IKEA’s Swedish food market and a 300-seat restaurant.
IKEA overcame its dispute with the county tax assessor on the tax appraisal of the property. The joint city-county Economic Development Growth Engine accepted the store’s original rate as set in January.
The store plans to hire as many as 225 workers with an average salary of $41,000 with full benefits.
Business stockpiles flat while sales decline
U.S businesses left their stockpiles unchanged in October, while total business sales fell for the second month out of the past three. The results could raise concerns about economic growth this quarter.
October business inventories were flat following a tiny 0.1 percent rise in September, the Commerce Department reported Friday. It was the weakest showing since July. Sales fell 0.2 percent in October after being flat in September.
Overall economic activity was muted this summer partly because businesses trimmed stockpiles to align with weaker sales. Economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the third quarter.
For the July-September period, the inventory slowdown trimmed overall growth by 0.6 percentage point. That was a key reason gross domestic product decelerated from a growth rate of 3.9 percent in the April-June quarter.
Economists at JPMorgan Chase are forecasting that further reductions in stockpiling will sap 0.7 percentage point from growth this quarter. They are forecasting that GDP will expand by a moderate 2 percent.