Planners back zoning to build back Lamar's
The advisory planning board for the city of Chattanooga voted Monday to support zoning changes sought to rebuild and reopen Lamar's hotel and restaurant on M.L. King Boulevard.
The Chattanooga/Hamilton County Regional Commission voted to support requests for both the hotel site and a nearby parking lot to be rezoned to allow the former hotel to be rebuilt.
During a public hearing Monday, Raeme Pritchett, who owns a house at 1010 E. 10th Street, objected to plans to have a parking lot directly across from her house to serve Lamar's customers. But architect Scott Smith said the developers will work to maintain a landscape buffer on the lot, which has previously been used for parking for Lamar's and other businesses.
Lamar's, which originally opened in 1970 and offered overnight housing and meals in the segregated 9th Street area for years, closed in 2017. A fire damaged the building earlier this year.
TopGolf add 79th unit in Knoxville, Tennessee
Topgolf Entertainment Group, which opened one of its venues at the Jordan Crossing complex in East Ridge in 2020, will open its 79th store and playing field in Knoxville on Friday, Aug. 12.
The open-air, two-level venue in Knoxville will feature 72 outdoor hitting bays with all the comforts of inside, a full-service restaurant with chef-inspired menu items, top-shelf drinks, music and year-round family-friendly programming for all ages. The venue is fully equipped with Topgolf's latest technology including the company's signature Toptracer technology. Toptracer is the most trusted ball-tracing technology in the golf industry, powering the experience at the venue and enabling Players at Topgolf to enjoy favorite games like Angry Birds and Jewel Jam. The venue will also feature an outdoor patio, rooftop terrace and private event space.
Located off Interstate 40 in Farragut across from the Turkey Creek shopping center, Topgolf Knoxville becomes the third venue to serve the state along with venues in Nashville and Chattanooga.
"We are excited to welcome the Knoxville community and bring more Tennesseans more opportunities to play the game of golf in their own way," said Topgolf Chief Operating Officer Gen Gray. "As a company focused on bringing diversity, a new personality and attitude to this game of golf, we look forward to bringing our unique experience to this community."
Alabama bank builds on TVA original site
An Alabama bank is planning on using a former Tennessee Valley Authority site for a new operations center in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Bank Independent announced plans last week for a 95,000-square-foot operations center on 50 acres of land off Reservation Road in Muscle Shoals. The more than $60 million facility will consolidate employees currently spread across five different buildings across the Shoals area.
"It's especially noteworthy that we are building on the ground of the original TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) where Presidents (Franklin) Roosevelt and (John F.) Kennedy came to recognize our community's monumental contribution to electrifying the entire Tennessee Valley," Bank Independent CEO Rick Wardlaw said in an announcement of the new 4-story building.
Bank Independent expects to break ground on the facility next spring, with completion planned for spring 2025.
FAA clears Boeing 787 Dreamliners
Federal safety officials have confirmed they will let Boeing resume deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner jet.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it expects Boeing to start shipping out the long-shelved planes in the coming days. Production has been marred by several problems including gaps between panels of the 787s carbon-composite skin. That's prevented Boeing from delivering any of the planes for most of the last two years, and about 120 of them have been parked while Boeing tried to fix the production process.
Once shipments resume, Boeing will regain a critical source of cash.
Japan's SoftBank loses $23 billion in quarter
Japanese technology company SoftBank Group posted a $23 billion loss in the April-June quarter as the value of its investments sank amid global worries about inflation and interest rates.
SoftBank Group's loss of 3.16 trillion yen was a reversal from its 762 billion yen profit in the same quarter a year earlier. The company said Monday that quarterly sales rose 6%.
Although Softbank's portfolio is not directly exposed to the war in Ukraine, the company warned that global uncertainty as well as inflation and soaring energy costs hurt profitability. Foreign exchange losses also bit into its earnings.
Chief Executive Masayoshi Son apologized and acknowledged "things are really bad."
- Compiled by Dave Flessner