Brash Coffee to close at Warehouse Row
Brash Coffee, a small, craft-style coffee shop located in Warehouse Row, will close permanently at the end of the month.
The company announced the closure on social media.
Brash Coffee premiered in Chattanooga last year. It also operates a second location in northwest Atlanta.
Some Chattanooga store employees found out the coffee shop would close on the day company officials made the announcement on social media. Company officials later had no comment on the sudden closure or the future of their Atlanta store.
212 Market named best farm-to-table restaurant
Travel + Leisure magazine has recognized 212 Market Restaurant in downtown Chattanooga as the best farm-to-table restaurant in Tennessee.
As part of its search for “The Best Farm-to-Table Restaurants in Every State,” the magazine writers consulted top food experts to select restaurants that “stand out from the pack by not only creating exciting innovative cuisine with a locally sourced menu, but also by applying that same eco-minded culinary philosophy to every aspect of the operation.”
Maggie Moses and her daughters Susan and Sally opened 212 Market Restaurant in 1992 when both their downtown location and serving local food “was a groundbreaking feat.” In 2007, 212 Market became the first certified green restaurant in Tennessee. The restaurant is currently certified by the green|light program and by the Tennessee Green Hospitality Association.
Travel + Leisure cited the restaurant’s “grass-fed burgers, homemade baked goods, solar-powered roof, on-site herb garden, and electric car chargers in the parking lot” as reasons to love 212 Market.
“In the past year, we’ve received a great deal of recognition for our sustainability efforts, including the Roosevelt-Ashe Outstanding Business Award from Wild South and the Times Free Press reader’s award for Best Green Business or Organization, and now being recognized by a national publication like Travel + Leisure is really gratifying,” Sally Moses said in a statement.
CBL sells retail mall in $27.9 million deal
CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., said Wednesday it has sold the Bonita Lakes Mall and Bonita Lakes Crossing in Meridian, Miss., for $27.9 million to RockStep Capital.
The Chattanooga-based shopping center development firm said the sale is part of the company’s ongoing effort to dispose of lower performing properties and lower its debt. So far this year, CBL has completed more than $386 million in property sales and company CEO Stephen Lebovitz said he “looks forward to making additional announcements throughout the year.”
“With the completion of our third mall sale this year, we are pleased to demonstrate additional progress on our portfolio transformation,” Lebovitz said. “The sale of Bonita Lakes improves our overall portfolio quality and provides equity proceeds to reduce leverage and enhance our liquidity position.”
CBL is one of the largest owners and developers of malls and shopping centers in the United States. CBL owns or manages 145 properties, including Hamilton Place and Northgate malls in Chattanooga.
Paul Simmons to head Watts Bar plant
Paul Simmons, a vice president for the Unit 2 startup activities at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, was named Wednesday to head the overall facility as site director. The TVA engineer will oversee all daily operational activities at the plant near Spring City, Tenn.
“Paul’s extensive operational experience will provide crucial leadership continuity between the two Watts Bar units,” TVA Chief Nuclear Officer Joe Grimes said Wednesday. “As we complete Power Ascension Testing and move into dual-unit operation, leadership is focused on one goal – the direct oversight needed to achieve excellence in all aspects of nuclear operations, which ensures the health and safety of employees and our neighbors in the Tennessee Valley,”
Kevin Walsh, the previous site vice president of Watts Bar, will focus on the site’s long-term strategic planning, positioning Watts Bar Unit 2 to effectively transition into the seventh unit in the TVA fleet, Grimes said.
The change comes as TVA prepares to respond to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next week on what it has done to address how the utility handles employee safety concerns.
Simmons joined TVA in 1986 and held a number of leadership roles at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, including plant manager, before joining the Watts Bar executive team in 2015. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and was licensed as a senior reactor operator in 1995.
Alexander speaks against Cumberland wind farm
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., took to the Senate floor Wednesday to denounce a proposed $100 million wind farm proposed in Cumberland County.
Alexander said Apex Clean Energy proposal for up to 23 wind turbines on 1,800 acres above Crab Orchard wind farm “would spoil mountain beauty” with “twenty-three 45-story wind turbines” less than 10 miles from Cumberland Mountain State Park and less than five miles from Ozone Falls Scenic State Natural Area.
Alexander urged Tennesseans to oppose what he said would be “massive” size of wind turbines – “over two times as tall as the sky boxes at the UT football stadium.” Tennessee’s senior senator also questioned the effectiveness of such wind turbines in an area were the wind blows “only 18.4 percent of the time” in Tennessee.
TVA resource council to meet in Chattanooga
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Regional Energy Resource Council will hold a two-day public working session next Tuesday and Wednesday in Chattanooga, Tennessee to discuss the evolving energy marketplace.
The council meeting will be held at The Chattanoogan Hotel, 1201 Broad St.and will begin at 10 a.m. EDT, on Tuesday, and 8:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The meeting is open to the public, and the public comment session is Wednesday from 9-10 a.m.
The Regional Energy Resource Council, a 20-member group with representatives from across the Tennessee Valley, advises TVA on the over-arching issues and often competing objectives involved in its energy resource decision-making.